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PRACTICAL THOUCHTS 



BY REV, WILLIAM NEYINS, D. D. 

LATE PASTOR OF A CHURCH IN BALTIMORB 



PUBLISHED BY THE 
AMERICAN TRACT SOCIETY, 

150 NASSAU-STREET, NEAV YORK. 






X-ib^t: 



BV^5c 1 



Entered according to the Act of Congress, in the year 1836, by Rtjfub 
L. NevixSj in the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the Southern 
District of the State of New York. 



Bight of publishing transferred to the American Tract Society 






The following pages consist of miscellaneous articles 
published by the lamented author within the year 1834, 
and the months of January and February, 1835, chiefly 
in the New York Observer, with the signature '^ M. S.," 
the finals of his name. They were written after the in- 
sidious disease by which God was pleased to transplant 
him to a higher sphere of labor had so affected his voice 
as in a great degree to disable him from his stated pub- 
lic ministrations. This discipline was evidently blessed 
in his rapid sanctification, his obtaining uncommonly 
clear views of truth and duty, and his ardent desire to 
do something to rouse Christians to greater attainments 
in personal holiness, and through their efforts and prayers 
to bless the world. His mind acted with unwonted 
vigor; he panted to speak to multitudes for God and 
eternity, and adopted the only means then remaining to 
him — his pen. When about two-thirds of the articles 
were written, he was called suddenly to part with his 
beloved wife ; and the hallowed influence of the afflic- 
tion is most apparent in the subsequent articles, the last 
of which, "Heaven's Attractions," with the additional 
fragment, seemed almost prophetic of the event which 
was soon to follow. 

It was hoped that the substance of these articles might 
be embodied in a volume under the author's own super- 
vision; but his strength was inadequate to the task 
They are now published in accordance with a few gen 
eral suggestions made by him a little before his death 
and in the form substantially in which they at first ap- 
peared. 

P. T. 



CONTENTS 



No. Page. 

1 . Dc you Pray in Secret ? 7 

2. Do you Pray in your Family? 13 

3. I must Pray more, 19 

4. I must Pray differently, 25 

5. Why Prayer is not Heard, . . . . . . . . 31 

6. I must Praise more, 39 

7. Do you Remember Christ ? 44 

8. I don't like Professions, 50 

9. Are you a Sabbath-school Teacher ? 55 

10. Do you attend the Monthly Concert? 63 

11. Why all Christians should attend the Monthly 

Concert. , 67 

12. Will any Christian be absent from the next 

Monthly Concert ? 72 

13. How came it to pass? 75 

14. Why the World is not Converted, 80 

15. The Conversion of the Church, 86 

16. Inquiring Saints, 91 

17. Do you pay for a E^eligious Newspaper? .... 94 

18. Detached Thoughts, 97 

19. The late Mr. Wirt, .101 

20. Travelling on the Sabbath, 106 

21. Apologies for Travelling on the Sabbath, . . . .113 

22. I have done Giving, 120 

23. I will Give Liberally, 124 

24. The Calls are so Many, 128 

25. I can't Afford it, 131 

26. -An Example of Liberality, 136 



6 CONTENTS. 

No. F&ge. 

27. Another Example of Liberality, 142 

28. More about Liberality, 147 

29. A Tract Effort, 152 

30. The World should have the Bible, 155 

31. Mrs. M. L. Nevins, 160 

32. What strange beings we are, 164 

33. What very strange beings we are, 168 

34. Should it be according to thy Mind ? 173 

35. How Inconsistent we are, 178 

36. The Pity of the Lord, 182 

37. Five Negatives, 188 

38. How to dispose of Care, 190 

39. Do you Enjoy Religion? 195 

40. Lo vest thou Me ? 201 

41. The Light of the World, 206 

42. The Salt of the Earth, 212 

43. The distance of Death, 216 

44. Why so loath to Die ? 222 

45. Heaven's Attractions, . 228 

46. The Heavenly Recognition, ........ 233 



PRACTICAL THOUGHTS. 



1. DO YOU PHAY IN SECRET? 

I KNOW not how it is with the reader, but I know 
that many persons are not in the habit of secret 
prayer. They have no closet, no place of retirement 
to which they daily resort, and where, when they 
have shut the door, they pray to their Father which 
is in secret, and in solitude seek the society of God. 
I am acquainted with one who for many years neg- 
lected this duty, which all religions recognize, and 
which even nature teaches. Sometimes he read the 
Bible, and no part of it oftener than the sermon on 
the mount. Of course, he must have frequently 
read those words of the great Teacher, in Avhich, tak- 
ing it for granted that his hearer prays, he tells him 
what he should do when he prays : " But thou, when 
thou prayest, enter into thy closet" — the person is 
supposed to have some place called his closet, to 
which he is accustomed to retire for prayer — ** and 
when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father 
which is in secret ; and thy Father, which seeth in 
secret, shall reward thee openly." He read this, 
but he gave no heed to it. During all this period, 



8 PRACTICAL THOUGHTS. 

he asked nothing, though he received much. God 
did not neglect him, though he neglected God ; and 
as he prayed none, so he praised none. Sometimes, 
indeed, he said, *' Thank God;" but it was said in 
so much thoughtlessness, that it was set down pro- 
faneness rather than praise. It is true, at that time 
he would never allow that he was ungrateful ; but 
he was, and now he sees that he was. He lived 
and moved and had his being in God, and yet was 
without God in the world. Many and precious were 
the thoughts of God towards him; but in all his 
thoughts, God was not. Not even when he was in 
trouble, did he ask, "Where is God my maker?" 
I wonder the Lord had not become weary of bestow- 
ing his bounty on such a one. It is because he is 
the Lord, and changes not. But for that, the per- 
son of whom I speak would have been consumed 
long ago. There is nothing he admires more than 
the long suffering of God towards him, and he hopes 
to spend eternity in admiring it, and exchanging 
thoughts with his fellow-redeemed on this and kin- 
dred subjects. 

He supposes that he is not the only one who has 
aeglected secret prayer. He fears that this neg- 
lect is even now the habit of many. They are shy 
of God. I know not why they should be. He is 
doing every thing to woo and win them, and to 
secure their confidence. So much has he done, that 
he asks — and I cannot answer — what he could have 



DO YOU PRAY IN SECRET? 9 

done more. He waits on his throne of grace to be 
gracious to them, but they come not near to him. 
He even calls to them to come to him, using too the 
language of most affectionate address, "Son, my 
son;" but they respond not, "Abba, Father." It is 
strange they should treat this Father so. They 
treat no other father so. What child does not, in 
the morning, salute his father; and what father 
does not expect the salutation of each child, as they 
come into his presence ? Oh, yes, we love our father 
who is on earth ; and we remember with gratitude 
the favors he does us. And does the Father of our 
spirits, the giver of every good gift, deserve no daily 
notice from us, no affectionate salutation, no grate- 
ful recognition of indebtedness to him ? I am cer- 
tain he expects it, for he says, "A son honoreth his 
father : if then I be a Father, where is mine hon- 
or ?" He claims to be a Father ; and 0, how well 
he has established that claim. Truly, he is a Fa- 
ther, and " like as a father pitieth his children, so 
the Lord pitieth" his. And to the compassion of 
the father he adds the tender care and untiring 
mindfulness of the mother. "Can a woman," he 
asks, "forget her sucking child?" She may, he 
says, but He will not. How strange it is, that men 
will not go to the closet to meet and to pray to such 
a Father. 

Surely, it is not for want of encouragement. If 
they have it not in his very nature, yet in his invi- 



10 PRACTICAL THOUGHTS. 

tations, his promises, and his past acts of unsolicited 
kindness, they have all they could desire. Nor is 
it that they have no need of God. Never one of 
the prayerless v^ill say that. They all know what 
would become of them but for that overlooking eye, 
and that supplying hand, and that supporting arm. 
And do they not know that God has a heart too — 
that he can love with all the fervor of a friend? 
And can they not imagine that in the interchange 
of affection between God and the soul of man, there 
may, and indeed must be, ineffable delight? And 
who that looks but a little way forward, does not 
perceive an exigency when, in the utter inadequacy 
of earthly and human resources for comfort, he will 
want ''the consolations of God?" 

Ah, it is a sad as well as strange thing, that so 
many enter no closet — seek daily no retirement, 
either in their houses or elsewhere, where they may 
be a little while alone with God ; where they may 
look up, and meet the light of his countenance as 
he looks down on them ; where they may confess 
their sins, and receive assurance of his pardoning 
love ; where they may thank him for mercies past, 
and humbly ask for more; where they may take 
counsel of him, tell him of their griefs, and have 
their tears wiped away, and with him leave the 
weighty burden of their cares. 

I know not whether this excites more my grief or 
my wonder. I am not so much surprised that men 



DO YOU PRAY IN SECRET? H 

ehould neglect a manifest duty ; but when I think 
what a privilege it is, what a happiness^ what an 
honor, to be on terms of intimacy, and in habits of 
intercourse with God, it amazes me that they should 
forego it. How will such reflect upon themselves 
hereafter — how execrate their folly. How will they 
wonder that they could have deliberately done their 
souls such a wrong. Then it will be too late to 
redress the wrong. They sought not the Lord while 
he might be found, they called not upon him while 
he was near. Yea, though he called, they refused. 
Now they may call, but he will not answer. If any 
one who is living in the neglect of secret prayer 
shall read this, will he not be persuaded to com- 
mence the practice the very day he reads it, aye, 
that same hour, if it be possible ? If it be not con- 
venient, let him make it convenient. Let other 
things give way for this, rather than this for any 
thing. Can he think his heart right in the sight of 
God, or his condition safe in the prospect of eter- 
nity, while he neglects prayer ? How dare he live 
without prayer ? Without it, can he have courage 
to die ? At the mercy-seat of God, we may decline 
to appear; but before his judgment-seat we must 
all stand. How a frequent access to the first would 
prepare us for final arraignment at the other. How 
it would familiarize us with the presence of God. 
How it would serve to break the shock of the en- 
trance into eternity. 



12 PRACTICAL THOUGHTS. 

Does any one who is not in the habitual and daily 
practice of secret devotion, pretend to be a Chris- 
tian? It is but pretence. He may believe the 
creed of the Christian, but certainly he does not 
pursue the 'practice, nor possess the spirit of the 
Christian. Breathing is essential to living, and 
prayer is the Christian's vital breath. Does he 
walk with God who never converses with him ? 

Some spiritualize the direction of Christ, making 
the closet to mean the heart, and the duty of private 
devotion to be discharged in mere mental prayer. 
But Christ did not so trifle. His closet was not his 
heart: he could not have meant that ours should 
be. He selected the still morning, and sought out 
the solitary place for prayer. May we be less 
attentive to the circumstances of time and place? 
Shall we talk about entering into ourselves, and 
there thinking prayer? Jesus, even in his most 
retired intercourse with his Father, used his voice. 
That prayer, ''Let this cup pass from me," was 
vocal; and that petition, '* God be merciful to me a 
sinner," was expressed in words. Shall we reserve 
the voice exclusively for our intercourse with men, 
and not with it also supplicate and bless God ? 

Is any one inquiring after truth? What place 
more appropriate for asking, "What is truth?" than 
the closet ? Who so likely to be taught of God as 
they who ask of God ? Some men carry that ques- 
tion to the Bible, and press it there, as indeed they 



DO YOU PRAY IN YOUR FAMILY? 13 

should ; but they carry it not to the throne of grace, 
and press it there also. They read to know what 
truth is, but do not "pray to know it. 

Oh, how an hour in the morning, spent with God, 
prepares us pleasantly and profitably to pass the 
other hours of the day with men; and at night, 
what so composing as communion with God? In 
resigning ourselves into the arms of sleep, that im- 
age of death, what security like that of prayer ? It 
engages Him who never slumbers nor sleeps, to 
watch over us. 

Has any one become remiss in secret devotion? 
What, tired of God, weary of communion with him? 
How sad the state of such a soul. 



3. DO YOU PRAY IN YOUR FAMILY ? 

There are families that call not on the name of 
the Lord. Nor is it a new thing. There were such 
so long ago as when Jeremiah lived. He takes 
notice of them. He has a prayer about them. It 
seems he was divinely inspired to call down the 
indignation of the Lord upon such families. *' Pour 
out thy fury," he says, "upon the families that call 
not on thy name." I would not like to have been 
a member of one of those families ; and much less 
the head of one of them. It must have been very 
ofiensive to the Lord that there were families in 



14 PRACTICAL THOUGHTS. 

which he was not acknowledged and worshipped. 
And if there were such families among the heathen 
nations that offended him, how much more must it 
have displeased him that there should be such fam- 
ilies even among his people Israel — families that did 
not in the family capacity invoke him. I do not 
know why it should be less offensive now. I do not 
believe it is. Families are now under as great 
obligations to God as ever they were. 

Some persons ask why we insist on family prayei 
as a duty. They say we cannot produce any pre- 
cept enjoining it. That is true enough. But I 
wonder if that is not a duty, the omission of which 
is the subject of prophetic denunciation. I wonder 
if that is not by implication commanded, the neg- 
lect of which brings down the wrath of God on 
those guilty of the neglect. There are some things 
so manifestly reasonable, and of such self-evident 
obligation, that they need no law expressly enjoin- 
ing them. It is not necessary that they should be 
taught in so many words. 

But if we have no express precept on the subject, 
we have pretty good examples in favor of it. I sus- 
pect Abraham, who was so careful to instruct his 
household in the way of the Lord, did not neglect 
to pray with them. And David, I am quite confi- 
dent, prayed ui his family. It is said of him on 
one occasion, that "he returned to bless his house- 
hold." No doubt there were both prayer and praise 



DO YOU ^RAY IN YOUR FAMILY? 15 

in that family. Certainly Joshua must have prayed 
in his house. How otherwise could he have ful- 
filled his resolution that his house as well as him- 
self should serve the Lord ? What, resolve that his 
house should serve the Lord, and not join with them 
in supplication for the grace to serve him ? That is 
not at all likely. 

Now, I would ask if it is not proper and right 
that every head of a family should adopt the reso- 
lution of him who said, "As for me and my house, 
we will serve the Lord?" But can there be relig- 
ion in a house without prayer ? Is there not incon- 
sistency in saying, "I and my family will serve 
God, but we will have no family altar nor offer- 
ing?" Is not prayer an essential part of the service 
of Grod? I wonder if any one ever lived who sup- 
posed that family prayer was not more pleasing to 
God than the omission of it. I wonder if any one 
ever omitted it for fear of being guilty of will- wor- 
ship, or through dread that it might for some reason 
offend God? I wonder if the practice of family 
prayer ever distressed any conscience ? The omis- 
sion of it has troubled many. ^ 

It is admitted, I believe, to be the will of God 
that we should pray to him socially. The Lord's 
prayer was constructed for social use. The disci- 
ples were directed to use it when they should pray 
together; and it is accordingly in the plural num- 
bar; not my Father, but ''our Father." Now, is 



16 ' PRACTICAL THOUGHTS. 

God to be socially worshipped, and yet not wor- 
shipped in that first, most permanent, and most inter- 
esting form of society — the form of society insti- 
tuted by God himself — the family ? Is that to be 
believed? But the Lord's prayer seems not only 
intended for social, but for daily use. " Give us 
this day our daily bread," is one of its petitions. 
It does not contemplate the morrow. It asks sup- 
plies but for one day. Now if, as it appears from 
this reasoning, social prayer should be daily, where 
but in the family, the society which is abiding, and 
which a single roof covers, can it with propriety be 
daily? Should there be public religious services 
daily, or daily prayer-meetings for this purpose? 
Then, how suitable it is that those who together 
share their daily bread, should together daily ask it. 
How reasonable and comely is household relig- 
ion — family worship. Common blessings, such as 
families daily share, call for common thanksgiv- 
ings. Common wants, such as families together 
feel, call for common supplications. Is it not fit 
that families, in retiring to rest at night, should 
together con^nit themselves to the divine keeping ; 
and in the morning, unite in praising the Lord for 
having been their protector? It is a clear case, it 
seems to me. Besides, fathers are directed to bring 
up their children "in the nurture and admonition 
of the Lord." But can they do this while they pray 
not with them and for them ? I do not know how 



DO you PRAY IN YOUR FAMILY? t7 

we are to comply with the apostolical exhortation 
to pray "everywhere," unless we pray in the fam- 
ily, as well as under other circumstances. 

Is any one in doubt whether the practice or omis- 
sion of family prayer will be the more pleasing sub- 
ject of retrospect from the dying bed, or the eternal 
world? Parents should not forget, that presently 
will come the long-deferred and greatly dreaded 
season of taking the last look, and the last leave of 
those whom their decease is to make orphans. 
then, what a sweet thought it will be to enter into 
the dying meditation, that they have been in the 
daily habit of bowing down with their children in 
prayer, and commending them to the care and grace 
of their heavenly Father, and that they may now 
indulge the confident hope that he will infinitely 
more than supply the paternal place which they are 
to leave vacant. 

But what need of more argument ? I suspect 
every body secretly admits the obligation of family 
prayer. I judge so from the trouble many are at to 
apologize for the neglect. It tries them not a little to 
satisfy even themselves with an excuse. The usual 
plea is inability. They have not the gift, they say. 
What gift? Can they not collect their family to- 
gether night and morning ? Have they not so much 
authority in their own house as that? And then 
can they not read a portion of Scripture to them; 
and kneeling down, express their common desires to 

Prac. Thoughts. 2 



18 PRACTICAL THOUGHTS. 

God? If they cannot frame a prayer at the mo- 
ment, yet can they not use a form ? It requires no 
great gift to read a prayer in an audible voice. But 
what if it he hard at first, it will soon he easy, if 
persevered in. The beginning of almost every good 
habit is difficult. The most of those who make this 
apology, presume on their inability. They say they 
cannot before they have tried. But until they have 
tried, they do not know whether they can or not. 
What if some have tried once, and failed. One fail- 
ure should not dishearten them, nor two, nor even 
twenty. Demosthenes tried speaking many times 
before he became an orator. Besides, how do those 
who presume on their inability to conduct family 
worship, know what assistance they might receive 
from God, if they were to make an humble and 
faithful experiment. 

If any one shall condescend to read this who does 
not pray in his family, I advise him to commence 
immediately. He knows that he will never be 
sorry for it, if he does ; but he is not so sure that he 
may not be sorry for it, if he does not. If there 
were no other reason in favor of the practice, this 
alone would be sufficient. I think it is Jay who 
says that a family without prayer is like a house 
without a roof — it has no protection. Who would 
like to live in such a house ? 



I MUST PRAY MORE. 19 

3. I MUST PRAY MORE. 

I habitually feel this necessity; but the othei 
day, the conviction came to my mind with strange 
power, and I said with greater emphasis than ever, 
I must pray more. It struck me with indescriba- 
ble wonder, that so little time should be employed, 
and so little energy expended in prayer even by 
those who are prompt to acknowledge its dignity as 
a privilege, and its efficacy as a means of obtaining 
good. It is not now as it was in patriarchal times. 
We do not pray as Jacob did. He wrestled until 
the breaking of the day. Yes, his praying was 
ivrestling, and it lasted all night. We put forth 
no such power in prayer, and we do not allow the 
repose of our nights to be interrupted by it. It is 
not because our wants are all supplied that we are 
so feeble and brief in prayer — nor is it that God's 
bounty is exhausted. We are as poor as creatures 
ever were, and he as rich and munificent as ever. 
His hand is not shortened, neither his ear heavy. 

Only think how small a portion of each succes- 
sive day is spent in prayer. I wonder if any Chris- 
tian ever thought of it without being so dissatisfied 
as to resolve that he would spend more time in/ 
prayer the next day. Just add together the min- 
utes you daily occupy in supplication, and the kin- 
dred exercises of devotion, scriptural reading, and 
meditation, and see to what it will amount. Will 



20 PRACTICAL THOUGHTS. 

the sum total be one hour? What, less than an 
hour a day in devotion? not one twenty-fourth part 
of time. And is this all which can be a£forded ? 
Let us see. How much time has husiiiess? Could 
not a little be saved from business for prayer? Do 
you not give an hour or two more to business every 
day than it absolutely requires ? Then how much 
time has shep for the refreshment of the body? 
Might not some little time be redeemed from sleep 
and spent in prayer, with more profit to the whole 
man than if it were given to repose ? Would not 
the soul thereby obtain a rest, which would most 
favorably react on the body ? I do not believe that 
the psalmist suffered any thing in the day for the 
hours of night he spent in communing on his bed 
with his own heart and with God. I do not believe 
that even "tired nature" had any reason to com- 
plain of that interruption of the repose due to her. 
I suspect he enjoyed as good health, and was as 
vigorous through the day as we, though he rose at 
midnight to give thanks unto God, and prevented 
the dawning of the morning with his prayer. Such 
interruptions of sleep are no loss even to the body. 
I am sure, and I think no one can doubt, that con- 
siderably more time might be afforded for prayer 
than is actually given to it. If we take none from 
business and none from sleep, yet could not some be 
spared from the table, or conversation, which is not 
always the most profitable ? Perhaps some of us 



I MUST PRAY MORE. 21 

spend more time in barely receiving tlie body's 
nourishment, than we do in the entire care of the 
soul ! But not to dwell to tediousness on this topic. 
You have only to look back on a day, to perceive 
how much of it might have been spent in prayer 
and devotion without interfering with any thing 
which ought not to be interfered with. 

Seeing then that we can pray more — that time 
can be afforded for it, I am amazed that we do not 
pray more. If prayer was nothing but a duty, we 
ought to pray more. We do not pray enough to 
discharge the mere obligation of prayer. "We are 
commanded to pray more than we do, aye, to pray 
*' without ceasing." But prayer, while it is a duty, 
is rather to be viewed by us in the light of a 
'privilege. And 0, it is $uch a privilege I What a 
favor, that we may petition God and ask of him 
eternal life, with the confidence that we shall not 
ask in vain. How strange it is that we no more 
value and exercise this privilege of prayer. It is 
astonishing that the sense of want, or the desire of 
happiness, does not carry us oftener to the throne 
of grace, and that we should ever require to be in- 
cited to prayer by the stimulus of conscience. Oh, 
I wonder that we do not oftener go in unto the 
King, whose gracious sceptre is ever extended tow- 
ards us — I wonder we have not more frequent 
and longer interviews with our heavenly Father. 
It is strange we do not pray more, when prayer is 



22 PRACTICAL THOUGHTS. 

the easiest way of obtaining good. What is so easy 
as to ask for what we want? How could we re- 
ceive blessings on cheaper terms ? Surely it is 
easier than to labor, and less expensive than to 
buy. It may be hard to the spirit to ask of men. 
To beg of them you may be ashamed. But no such 
feeling should keep you aloof from God. He giveth 
and upbraideth not. 

But prayer is not merely the easiest way of ob- 
taining good ; it is the only way of obtaining the 
greatest of all good. The subordinate necessaries 
of life we get by labor or purchase ; but the things 
we most need are given in answer to prayer. The 
one thing needful is a divine donation. We ask, 
and receive it. Now we labor much. Why do we 
not pray more ? Do we seek a profitable employ- 
ment ? None is so profitable as prayer. No labor 
makes so large a return. If you have an unoccu- 
pied hour — and you have many, or might have 
by redeeming time — you cannot employ it in any 
way that shall tell so favorably on your interests 
as by filling it up with petitions to God. Yet when 
we have such an hour, how apt we are to spend it 
in unprofitable intercourse with our fellows, rather 
than in communion with God. It is wonderful 
that we talk so much, when "the talk of the lips 
tendeth only to penury," and pray so little, when 
prayer ''brings a quick return of blessings in 
variety." 



I MUST PRAY MORE, 23 

Is there any thing attended by a purer pleasure 
than prayer? One who knew, said, *'It is good for 
me to draw near to God;" and again, "It is good 
to sing praises unto our God ; for it is pleasant, 
and praise is comely." All the exercises of devo- 
tion are as full of pleasure as they are abundant in 
profit. 

But prayer is not only a means of getting good, 
it is such a means of doing good, that I wonder our 
benevolence does not lead us to pray more. We are 
commanded, "as we have opportunity," to do good 
unto all men. Now prayer affords us the oppor- 
tunity of being universal benefactors. Through 
God we can reach all men. We can make our- 
selves felt by all the world, by moving the hand 
that moves it. In no other way can we reach all. 
Prayer makes us, in a sense, omnipresent and om- 
nipotent. It prevails with Him who is both. 

The world needs your intercessions : it lies in 
wickedness. Zion needs them : she languishes 
because few pray for her peace — few come to her 
solemn assemblies. Whose family needs not the 
prayers of its every member ? Who has not kindred 
that are out of Christ ? With such a call upon us 
for prayer so urgent, and from so many quarters, I 
Wonder we pray no more. 

I must pray more, for then I shall do more — 
more for God, and more for myself; for I find that 
when I pray most, I accomplish more in the briefer 



24 PRACTICAL THOUGHTS. 

intervals between my devotions, than when I give 
all my time to labor or study. I am convinced 
there is nothing lost by prayer. I am sure nothing 
helps a student like prayer. His most felicitous 
hours — ^his hours of most successful application to 
study, are those which immediately follow his sea- 
sons of most fervent devotion. And no wonder. 
Shall the collision of created minds with each 
other produce in them a salutary excitement, and 
shall not the communion of those minds with the 
infinite Intelligence much more excite them, and 
make them capable of wider thought and loftier 
conceptions ? 

I must pray more, because other Christians, 
whose biography I have read, have prayed more 
than I do, 

God is disposed to hear more prayers from me 
than I offer, and Jesus the Mediator stands ready 
to present more for me. 

If I pray more, I shall sin less. 

I will pray more. The Lord help to fulfil this 
resolution. 



I MUST PRAY DIPFEREKTLY. 25 

4. I MUST PHAY DIFFERENTLY. 

Some time ago I felt strongly the necessity of 
praying more, and I expressed that impression in 
an article entitled, *'I must pray more." Now I 
feel that I must not only pray more, but differently ; 
and that my praying more will not answer any good 
purpose, unless I also pray differently. I find that 
quality is to be considered in praying as well as 
quantity ; and, indeed, the former more than the 
latter. We learn from Isaiah, chapter 1, that it is 
possible to make many prayers, or to multiply 
prayer, as it is in the margin, and yet not be heard. 
The scribes and Pharisees made long prayers, but 
their much praying availed them nothing; while 
the single short petition of the publican was effect- 
ual to change his entire prospects for eternity. It 
was because it was prayer of the right ki7id. It is 
a great error to suppose that we shall be heard for 
our much speaking. Let me, however, say, that 
while length is not by itself any recommendation 
of prayer, yet we have the highest and best au- 
thority for continuing a long time in prayer. We 
know who it was that, "rising up a great while be- 
fore day," departed into a solitary place, and there 
prayed ; and of whom it is recorded in another 
place, that he "continued all night in prayer to 
God." Certainly they should spend a great deal of 
time in prayer, who are instructed to "pray with- 



26 PRACTICAL THOUGHTS. 

out ceasing.*' It is in the social and public worship 
of God that long prayers are out of place. 

But to return from this digression. I must pray 
differently ; and I will tell you one thing which has 
led me to think so. I find that I do not pray effect- 
ually. It may be the experience of others, as well 
as of myself I do not obtain what I ask ; and that 
though I ask for the right sort of things. If I asked 
for temporal good, and did not receive it, I should 
know how to account for it. I should conclude that 
I was denied in mercy ; and that my prayer, though 
not answered in kind, was answered in better kind. 
But I pray for spiritual blessing — for what is in- 
herently and under all circumstances good, and do 
not obtain it. How is this ? There is no fault in 
the hearer of prayer — no unfaithfulness in God. 
The fault must be in the offerer. I do not pray 
right. And since there is no use in asking without 
obtaining, the conclusion is that I must pray differ- 
ently. 

I find, moreover, that I do not pray as they did 
in old time, whose prayers were so signally an- 
-swered. When I compare my prayers with those 
of the patriarchs, especially with that of Jacob — 
and with the prayers of the prophets, those, for in- 
stance, of Elijah and Daniel; when I compare my 
manner of making suit to the Saviour, with the 
appeals made to him by the blind men, and by the 
woman of Canaan; and above all, when I lay my 



MUST PRAY DIFFERENTLY. 27 

prayers alongside of His, who "offered up prayers 
and supplications with, strong crying and tears," I 
perceive such a dissimilarity, that I thence con- 
clude I must pray differently. 

I find also that I do not urge my suits to Grod as 
I do those which I have sometimes occasion to 
make to men. I am wiser as a child of this world, 
than I am as one of the children of light. When 
I want to carry a point with a human power, I find 
that I take more pains, and am more intent upon 
it, and use greater vigilance and effort, than when 
I want to gain something of God. It is clear, then, 
that I must alter and reform my prayers. I must 
pray differently. 

But in what respects ; how differently ? 

1. I must not speak to God at a distance. I must 
draw near to him. Nor that alone. I must stir 
myself up to take hold of him. Isaiah 64 : 7. 
Yea, I must take hold of his strength, that I may 
make peace with him. Isaiah 27 : 5. I have 
been satisfied with approaching God. I must, as 
it were, apprehend him. 

2. I must not only take hold of God in prayer 
but I must hold fast to him, and not let him go 
except he bless me. So Jacob did. There were 
two important ingredients in his prayer — faith and 
perseverance. By the one he took hold of God; by 
the other he held fast to him till the blessing was 
obtained. 



28 PRACTICAL THOUGHTS. 

3. I must be onore affected by the subjects about 
which I pray. I must join tears to my prayers. 
Prayers and tears used to go together much more 
than they do now. Hosea says that Jacob "wept 
and made supplication." Hannah wept while she 
prayed. So did Nehemiah, and David, and Heze- 
kiah; and God, in granting the request of the last 
mentioned, uses this language : "I have heard thy 
prayer, I have seen thy tears." But a greater than 
all these is here. Jesus offered up prayers '*with 
strong crying and tears." Some think it unmanhj 
to weep. I do not know how that may be ; but I 
know it is not unchristian. It is thought by some, 
that men must have been more addicted to tears 
then than they are now ; but it is my opinion that 
they/eZ^ more, and that is the reason they wept 
more, Now 1 must feel so as to weep ; not by 
constraint, but in spite of myself I must be so 
affected, that God shall see my tears as well as 
hear my voice ; and in order to being so affected, I 
must meditate. It was while David mused that 
the fire burned ; and then he spoke with his tongue 
in the language of prayer. And we know that 

• which melted his heart affected his eye ; for in the 
same psalm, the thirty-ninth, he says, " Hold not thy 
peace at my tears." 

4. There are other accompaniments of prayei 
which I must not omit. Nehemiah not only 
wept and prayed, but also mourned^ and fasted^ 



I MUST PRAY DIFFERENTLY. 29 

and made confession. Why should not I do the 
same ? 

5. I must plead as well as pray. My prayers 
must be more of the nature of arguments — and I 
must make greater use than I have ever done of 
certain pleas. There is one derived from the char- 
acter of God. *'For thy name's sake, pardon mine 
iniquity. Have mercy on me accoi'ding to thy lov- 
ing-kindness^' Another is derived from the prom- 
ises of God. " Hath he said, and shall he not do 
it; or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it 
good ?" Another is drawn from the past doings of 
God. *' I will remember the years of the right 
hand of the Most High. I will remember the 
works of the Lord ; surely I will remember thy 
wonders of old." I must also plead Christ more 
in my prayers. The argument is drawn out to our 
hands by Paul : " He that spared not his own Son 
.... how shall he not with him also freely give 
us all things?" 

6. But again, I must cry unto the Lord. Cry- 
ing expresses more than praying. It expresses 
earnest, fervent prayer. This is what they all 
used to do. They cried to God. The psalmist 
says, "I cried with my luhole heart'' I must cry 
with rny whole heart — -yea, mightily, as even the 
Ninevites did, else those heathen will rise up in 
the judgment and condemn me. 

7. 1 must seek the Lord in prayer, feeling as did 



30 PRACTICAL THOUGHTS. 

Job, when he said, '' 0, that I knew where I might 
find him, that I might come even to his seat I" And 
this I must do, as Judah is once said to have done, 
with my "whole desire." Yea, I must search for 
him with all my heart. I must even pour out my 
heart before him, as the psalmist, on one occasion, 
exhorts. I must "keep not silence, and give him 
no rest," as Isaiah directs; "night and day pray- 
ing exceedingly'' as Paul says he did. 

8. And I must pray in the Hohj Ghost, as Jude 
exhorts. We need the Spirit to help our infirmi- 
ties, and to make intercession for us. Nor should 
we be satisfied with any prayer in which we have 
not seemed to have his help. 

Finally, I must alter and alter my prayers, till I 
get them right ; and I must not think them right 
until I obtain the spiritual blessings which they 
ask. If I pray for more grace and do not get it, I 
must pray differently for it, till I do obtain it. 

Oh, if Christians prayed differently, as well as 
more, what heavenly places our closets would be. 
What interesting meetings prayer-meetings would 
be. What revivals of religion we should have ; 
how frequent, numerous, and pure. What a mul- 
titude of souls would be converted. What joyful 
tidings we should hear from our missionary sta- 
tions, and from the heathen world. Oh, what 
times we should have. The millennium would bo 
on us before we knew it. 



WHY PRAYER IS NOT HEARD. 31 

And because the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of 
truth, the offering of a different kind of prayer for 
the Spirit would do more to put down error than 
all other means which can he resorted to. The 
preachers of truth cannot put it down without the 
aid of the Spirit of truth. 

Let us then pray differently. Let us at least try. 
I am sure it is worth the effort. Let every one 
who reads this, resolve, "I ivill pray differently '* 



5. WHY PRAYER IS NOT HEARD. 

There are some who are not at all interested in 
this inquiry. They offer no prayer. There is in 
their case nothing to he heard. They are content 
with the things which are to he had without ask- 
ing. Such are in a bad way, afid I suspect they 
sometimes themselves think so. That dependent 
creatures should habitually and devoutly acknow- 
ledge their dependence before God ; and that needy 
creatures, whose necessities return every day, and 
indeed recur with every moment, should ask God 
to supply them, is too reasonable a thing for men 
to neglect it, and yet be at perfect peace with 
themselves. 

But to pass from those who never make the ex^ 
periment of prayer, we observe that some pray 



32 PRACTICAL THOUGHTS. 

witliout any expectation or care to be heard. To 
obtain is not their object. Their end is accom- 
plished in asking. They hear and judge that 
prayer is a duty owed to God. They* therefore 
pray, that they may discharge this duty ; and hav- 
ing prayed, and so done their duty, they are satis- 
fied. Of course such persons obtain nothing. Why 
should they ? If a child of yours should come and 
ask you for any thing from a mere sense of duty, 
you would say, '' Very well, you have done your 
duty, go;" but you would not give him the thing. 
He did not ask it with any wish to get it. He does 
not feel his want of it. He meant only to do his 
duty in asking. It makes very little difference 
with such what is the matter of their prayer — 
what petitions they offer. Any thing that is of the 
nature of supplication will do. It is true, they 
generally pray for the right things, because the 
prayers they have heard and read petitioned for 
such, and they fall naturally into that style of 
prayer. Ask such persons if their prayers are 
heard, and you astonish them. That is what they 
never looked for. They never asked any thing- 
with the hope of receiving it — never prayed from 
a sense of want. I have sometimes thought, how 
many would never pray, if prayer was not a duty. 
They never pray except when urged to it by con- 
science. As a privilege, they set no value on it. 
Now the truth is, when a man is really engaged 



•WHY PRAYER IS NOT HEARIT, 33 

in prayer, he altogether forgets that it is a duty. 
He feels that he wants something which God alone 
can give, and therefore goes and asks it ; and feel 
ing that he wants it very much, he is in earnest, 
asks and asks again, and waits and pleads for it 
till he gets it. Does any one suppose that the pub- 
lican smote on his breast, and cried, " God be mer- 
ciful to me a sinner," from a sense of duty, and not 
rather from a conviction of sin, and a deep feeling 
of his need of mercy ? And yet how many ask for 
mercy from a mere sense of duty. They have their 
reward, but they do not obtain mercy. 

Some prayers proceed from a conviction of want, 
while there is no sense of want. The persons judge 
that they need the things they ask for, but they do 
not feel their need of them. Now, prayers which 
come from no deeper source than the understand- 
ing, are not heard. They must come from the 
heart. True prayer always originates in the heart. 
It is the heart's sincere desire. Or, as another has 
well described it, *' It is a sense of want, seeking 
relief from God." 

But there may be a sense of want, and yet no 
real desire for that which is adapted to the supply 
of the want. In that case the prayer, not being 
sustained by a corresponding desire in the heart, is 
not heard. There is a conflict here. The lips pray 
«nie thing and the heart another. The request is, 
perhaps, to be delivered from all sin, but the desire 

Pre.c. Thoughts. 3 



34 PKACTICAL THOUGHTS. 

is to be delivered from all but one or two favorite 
sins. Now it would be strange if God should grant 
a man's request to the disregard of his desire — fkat 
he should attend to the lips rather than the heart 
and answer the prayer according to its terms rathei 
than its meaning. 

But sometimes the desire for the thing requested 
is real, while the mischief is, it is not paramount — • 
it is not supreme. This is a common case. The 
prayer expresses what is desired, but not what is 
desired on the whole. Many really wish to be re- 
ligious, and they pray that they may be so, but 
they do not on the whole desire it. They have a 
strange wish to be something else which is incom- 
patible with their being religious. Again, some 
sincerely desire the progress of the gospel, and pray, 
^'thy kingdom come," but they desire still more to 
take their ease, or to keep their money. Perhaps 
some of this description attend the monthly concert. 
But desire may be sincere and supreme, and yet 
not intense. Effectual prayer is the expression of 
intense desire. The examples of successful prayer 
recorded in the Bible evince this. The woman of 
Canaan sincerely, supremely, and intensely desired 
what she asked. Such was the character of Jacob's 
desire for a blessing, and of the publican's for mercy. 
Where the desire of spiritual blessings is not very 
strong, it shows that these blessings are not suitably 
estimated. 



WHY PRAYER IS NOT HEARD. 35 

A great deal depends on having a petition prop- 
erly presented. It is all-important to get it into 
the right hands. A petition frequently fails through 
inattention to this. If the proper person had been 
engaged to present and urge it, it would have been 
granted. This holds true of suits to the throne of 
the heavenly grace. We must ask in the name of 
Christ. We mast put our petitions into his hands, 
and engage the great Advocate to present and urge 
them. Him the Father always hears. Even the 
prayers of the saints need an incense to be ofiered 
along with them to render them acceptable. That 
incense is Christ's intercession. 

To 'present a 'petition is one thing ; to prosecute 
a suit is another. Most prayer answers to the 
former ; but successful prayer corresponds to the 
latter. The children of this world are, in this re- 
spect, wise in their generation. When they have 
a petition to carry, they go with it to the seat of 
government, and having conveyed it by the proper 
channel to the power which is to decide upon it, 
they anxiously await the decision ; in the mean time 
securing all the influence they can, and doing 
every thing possible to insure a favorable result. 
So should the children of light do. But frequently 
they just lodge their petition in the court of heaven, 
and there they let it lie. They do not press their 
suit. They do not employ other means of further- 
ing it, beyond the simple presenting of it. They 



36 PRACTICAL THOUGHTS. 

do not await the decision on it. The whole of 
prayer does not consist in taking hold of God. The 
main matter is holding on. How many are in- 
duced, by the slightest appearance of repulse, to 
let go, as Jacob did not. I have been struck with 
the manner in which petitions are usually con- 
cluded: "And your petitioners will eve?' pray.'' 
So ''men ought ahvays to pray" to God, "and 
never faint." Payson says, "The promise of God 
is not to the act, but to the habit of prayer." 

Sometimes prayer is not heard, because not offered 
in faith. "He that cometh to God, must believe." 
Yea, he must "ask in faith, nothing wavering." 
Sometimes it is for want of a concomitant submis- 
sion to the will of God. He who said, " Let this cup 
pass from me," added, "Nevertheless, not as I will, 
but as thou wilt." Often prayer fails, because the 
direction to pray everywhere is neglected. The peti- 
tion proceeds from the closet ; but is not also offered 
in the family, in the social meeting, and in the sol- 
emn assembly. Sometimes a specific direction is 
given concerning something to be done in connec- 
tion with prayer, which being neglected, the pray- 
er by itself is unavailing. Thus, in order that we 
may not enter into temptation, we are commanded 
to "watch and pray." Vain is prayer to secure 
against temptation, if vigilance be omitted. Prayer 
is sometimes ineffectual, because too general. When 
we ask many things, it commonly indicates that we 



WHY PRAYER IS NOT HEARD'. 37 

are not in earnest for any thing. The heart is in- 
capable of being at the same time the subject of 
many intense desires. The memorials of the chil- 
dren of this world are specific. They are rarely 
encumbered with more than one petition. Does 
any one suppose, that when prayer was made of the 
church for Peter, being in prison, they prayed for 
every body and every thing first, and only brought 
in Peter's case at the close ? 

Petitions have usually numerous signatures. So 
should there be union in prayer among Christians. 
Social supplication has particular value, in the esti- 
mation of God. Special promises are made to it. 

Need I say that alloived sin vitiates prayer ? "If 
I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not 
hear me." 

There is a regard to the promises which ought to 
be had in prayer. Moreover, confession of sin out 
of a broken heart, and gratitude for good received, 
should accompany it. And there is a "praying in 
the Holy Ghost," which we should aim to under- 
stand and realize. 

At an earlier stage of these remarks, I might 
have observed that some prayer is not heard, be- 
cause it is said, rather than prayed. Now, prayer 
ought to be 'prayed. The closet is not the place for 
recitation. What more common than this expres- 
sion, " I must say my prayers ?" Must you, indeed ? 
Is this the way you speak of it? Is it a task to 



38 PRACTICAL THOUGHTS. 

which you aie going reluctantly to apply yourself? 
And say your prayers too I How this contrasts with 
the cheerful purpose of the psalmist: "My voice 
shalt thou hear in the morning, Lord; in the 
morning loill I direct my prayer unto thee, and will 
look up." 

Perhaps one brings his gift to the altar, and for- 
gets that his brother has aught against him; or 
remembering it, does not go first and seek reconcil- 
iation with him, but proceeds to offer his gift, and 
that is the reason it is not accepted. 

Many a Christian hinders his prayer by indulg- 
mg in that species of unbelief which surmises that 
what he asks is too great a thing for God to bestow 
on one so unworthy as he is. He forgets that the 
greatest, aye, the greatest gift, has already been 
conferred in God's own Son, and the foundation 
therein laid for the argument, "How shall he not 
with him also freely give us all things?" God 
having begun his bounty in such a style of magnifi- 
cence, consistency requires him now to go on, and 
do the greatest possible thing for the recipients oi 
his Son. 



I MUST PRAISE MORE. 39 

6. I MUST PRAISE MORE. 

The title of a recent article was, "I must pray 
more;" and in it I expressed wonder that we pray 
BO little, and gave reasons why we should pray 
more. But it strikes me that we ought to praise 
more, as well as pray more. I do not know how it 
is with others, hut I know that I have a great deal 
for which to be thankful and to praise God. I feel 
that it will not do for me to spend all my breath in 
prayer. I should thus, it is true, acknowledge my 
dependence on God; but where would be the ac- 
knowledgment of his benefits conferred upon me? 
I must spend a part of my breath in praise. 0, to 
be animated from above with that life whose alter- 
nate breath is prayer and praise. God has been 
very good to me. Yes, he has exercised goodness 
towards me in all its various forms of pity, forbear- 
ance, care, bounty, grace, and mercy ; or to express 
all in one word, "God is love," and he has been 
love to me. I do not know why he should have 
treated me so kindly. I have sought, but can find 
no reason out of himself I conclude it is because 
he ** delighteth in mercy." His nature being love, it 
is natural for him to love his creatures, and espec- 
lElly those whom he has called to be his children. 
0, the goodness of God. The thought of it some- 
times comes over me with very great power, and I 
am overwhelmed in admiration. Nothing so easily 



40 PRACTICAL THOUGHTS. 

breaks up the fountain of tears within me. Those 
drops, if I may judge from my own experience, were 
intended as much to express gratitude as grief I 
think I shall he ahle, without weariness, to spend 
eternity on the topic of divine love and goodness. 

Reader, can you not adopt my language as your 
own ? Has not God been the same to you ? And 
shall we not praise him? Shall all our devotion 
consist in prayer ? Shall we be always thinking of 
our wants, and never of his benefits — always dwell 
ing on what remains to be done, and never thinking 
of what has already been done for us — always utter- 
ing desire, and never expressing gratitude — expend- 
ing all our voice in supplication, and none of it in 
song ? Is this the way to treat a benefactor ? No, 
indeed. It is noijiist so to treat him; neither is it 
wise. It is very bad policy to praise no more than 
Christians in general do. They would have much 
more success in prayer, if one half the time they 
now spend in it were spent in praise. I do not 
mean that they pray too much, but that they praise 
too little. I suspect the reason why the Lord did 
such great things for the psalmist was, that while 
he was not by any means deficient in prayer, he 
abounded in praise. The Lord heard his psalms; 
and while he sung of mercy shown, showed him 
more. And it would be just so with us, if we 
abounded more in praise and thanksgiving. It dis- 
pleases God that we should be always dwellino: on 



I MUST PRAISE MORE. 41 

our wants, as if he liad never supplied one of them. 
How do we know that God is not waiting for us to 
praise him for a benefit he has already conferred^ 
before he will confer on us that other which we may 
be now so earnestly desiring of him ? It is wonder- 
ful how much more prone we are to forget the ben- 
efit received, than the benefit wanted ; in other 
words, how much more inclined we are to offer 
prayer than praise. For one who offers genuine 
praise, there may be found ten that pray. Ten 
lepers lifted up their voices together in the prayer, 
*' Jesus, Master, have mercy on us;" but only one 
of the ten "returned to give glory to God." The 
rest were satisfied with the benefit — this one only 
thought gratefully of the benefactor. His gratitude 
obtained for him, I doubt not, a greater blessing 
than ever his prayer had procured ; and praise has 
often, I believe, in the experience of the people of 
God, been found more effectual for obtaining bless- 
ings than prayer. A person being once cast upon a 
desolate island, spent a day in fasting and prayer 
for his deliverance, but no help came. It occurred 
to him then to keep a day of thanksgiving and 
praise, and he had no sooner done it than relief was 
biought to him. You see, as soon as he began to 
sing of mercy exercised, the exercise of mercy was 
renewed to him. The Lord heard the voice of his 
praise. 

Christian reader, you complain perhaps that yom 



42 PRACTICAL THOUGHTS. 

prayer is not heard ; suppose you try the efficacy 
of praise. Peradventure you will find that the way 
to obtain new favors, is to praise the Lord for favors 
received. Perhaps, if you consider his goodness, he 
will consider your wants. It may be you are a 
parent, and one child is converted ; but there is 
another, concerning w^hom you say, ''0 that he 
might live before thee." Go now and bless the 
Lord for the conversion of the first, and it is very 
likely he will give thee occasion shortly to keep 
another day of thanksgiving for the salvation of the 
other. Some of us are sick. Perhaps it is because 
we did not praise the Lord for health. We forget 
that benefit. We do not forget our sickness. no. 
Nor is there any lack of desire in us to get well. 
We pray for recovery. And so we should ; but it 
strikes me that we might get well sooner, were we 
to dwell with less grief and despondency on our loss 
of health, and to contemplate wath cheerful and 
grateful admiration what God has done for our 
souls ; the great love w^herewith he loved us, even 
when we were dead in sins ; and how he spared not 
his own Son, that he might spare us ; and gives us 
now his Spirit, to be in us the earnest of heaven, our 
eternal home. If we were to think such thoughts, 
to the forgetfulness of our bodily ailments, I judge 
it would be better for the whole man, body and soul 
both, than any other course we can pursue. If the 
affliction should still continue, we should count it 



II 



I MUST PRAISE MORE. 43 

light, aye, should rejoice in it, because it is his will, 
and because he says he means Lo make it work our 
good. 

There is nothing glorifies God like praise. ''Who- 
so ofFereth praise, glorifieth me." Psa. 1 : 23. Prayer 
expresses dependence and desire ; but praise, admi- 
ration and gratitude. By it, men testify and tell 
all abroad that God is good, and thus others are 
persuaded to "taste and see that the Lord is good." 
Praise is altogether the superior exercise of the two. 
Prayer may be purely selfish in its origin, but praise 
is ingenuous. Praise is the employment of heaven. 
Angels praise. The spirits of the just made perfect 
praise. We shall not always pray, but we shall 
ever praise. Let us anticipate the employment of 
heaven. Let us exercise ourselves unto praise. 
Let us learn the song now, "0 that men would 
praise the Lord for his goodness." But above all, 
*'let the saints be joyful in glory: let them sing 
aloud upon their beds." I charge thee, my soul, 
to praise him, and he will never let thee want mat 
ter for praise. "While I live will I praise the 
Lord : I will sing praises unto my God while I have 
any being." 



44 PRACTICAL THOUGHTS. 

7. BO YOU REMEMBER CHRIST ? 

I kno^ryou cannot help thinking of Christ some- 
times. His story is too extraordinary to be heard 
once and never again remembered. There is also 
much which we daily see and hear, to remind us of 
him. Doubtless you often i?i voluntarily remember 
him ; but do you voluntarily, and of choice, remem- 
ber him ? Do you ever, by an exercise of volition, 
recall the memory of him? He is sometimes in- 
truded into the society of your thoughts, but do you 
ever invite him there? Do you ever say, "Come, 
now, let me think of Christ ?". I doubt not you do 
this also. You voluntarily remember — you call to 
mind his incarnation, his miracles of mercy, his 
doctrine, his example, his resurrection; but do you 
particularly remember his death? His death was 
the main circumstance in his history. Do your 
thoughts, passing from the manger along the track 
of his sorrowful story, fasten on the cross ? 

May I ask, moreover, laith what you remember 
him ? Whether it is a mere intellectual operation, 
or one in which the heart is conjoined ? There arc 
recollections which pass across the mind without 
ever stirring the most easily excited emotions of the 
heart. Is your recollection of Christ of this kind; 
or do you feel while you think of him? Do your 
affections move in the line of your thoughts, and 
collect about the same centre ? Jesus ou^ht to be 



DO YOU REMEMBER CHRIST? 45 

remembered with the heart. We shoviid feel when 
we think of him. You say, perhaps, " I do not only 
mentally, but cordially remember Christ." But do 
you remember him practically? Do you do any 
thing in remembrance of him ? It is customary not 
only to remember, but to commemorate great bene- 
factors; and that not merely by speaking of their 
benevolent exploits, but by some appropriate acts. 
Do you this with respect to Christ, that greatest, 
best of benefactors ? 

Perhaps you answer, "I do many things out of 
regard to the memory of Christ. His precepts gen- 
erally I endeavor to obey." That is all very well ; 
but do you that which he appointed, or requested 
to be done in remembrance of him, on that " same 
night in which he was betrayed?" Some do not. 
Even some who profess respect, and indeed love for 
Christ, do not. It is strange, but so it is. They 
remember Christ m their own way, but not in his 
way. They do some things in remembrance of him, 
but not that which he said ''do.'' I wonder they 
do not adopt his way. I cannot help suspecting 
their love when I see they do not. It always ap- 
peared to me that such a benefactor as Christ 
ought to be remembered in his own way — that he 
deserved to have the privilege of saying how he 
would be remembered ; and that sinners, whom he 
died to save, should remember him in that way, 
even though it should not seem to them the most 



46 PRACTICAL THOUGHTS. 

appropriate and reasonable manner of commemo- 
rating him. I do not know how it strikes others, 
but so it always, struck me; and I confess I take 
the bread and eat it, and I put the cup to my lips, 
primarily, because he said, ''Do this." 

The question about the usefulness of visible me- 
morials, and the suitableness of these memorials, I 
am content that he should settle. I know very 
well that if there be no natural adaptation in these 
memorials to do me good, he can connect a blessing 
with them. It is my part to obey him. It is enough 
for me that my Saviour incline(\ to this mode of 
being remembered, and expressed such a wish : the 
least I can do is to comply with it. He did not ex- 
press a great many wishes. It is an easy yoke he 
calls us to take — a light burden to bear. I cannot 
help regarding it as unkind, that this one wish of 
Jesus should not be complied with ; and especially 
when I consider what a friend he w^as — what a 
benefactor. I use the word benefactor, but those 
who are acquainted with the etymolog}' of the word, 
know^ it does not express all that Christ was. It 
implies doing out of good will to others ; but his 
benevolence was not satisfied with benefaction : he 
suffered — he died for others. Strong as death — 
stronger than death was his love. And consider, 
too, the circumstances under which this wish was 
expressed — when it was, and where. All his wishes, 
I think, should be complied with ; but this was his 



DO YOU REMEMBER CHRIST? 47 

last. He was going to suffer— he was to die in a 
few hours : and such a death, too I and for them of 
whom he made the request, that they might die 
never. And the request was touching his death. 
He desired it might he commemorated as he signi- 
fied. Oh, to think that such a wish should not be 
complied with — the tender request of the dying 
Redeemer not regarded I Who would have be- 
lieved it ? I wonder those words, " This is my 
body, broken for you," do not break the heart of 
every one who refuses. 

Men treat no other being so. Out of their own 
mouths I will judge them. They know the sacred 
regard they pay to last wishes and dying injunc- 
tions ; and that, though they are under no particu- 
lar obligations to the persons expressing them, and 
though the things desired be often unreasonable, 
yet, because they are last wishes, dying requests, 
the individuals expressing them being about to 
make the awful transition to eternity, how solemn- 
ly they charge the memory with them — how punc- 
tiliously they comply with them ! "We feel as if 
persons in such circumstances had a right to com- 
mand us. I never knew one such request, if it was 
practicable, and at all reasonable, that was not 
complied with. I ought to say, I never knew hut 
one. The last request of Jesus Christ — his last 
solemn injunction on those whom he bled to save, 
forms the solitary exception. Oh, it is too bad \ 



48 PRACTICAL THOU aHTS. 

It were a neglect unpardonable, but for the media- 
tion of the very being who is the object of it. Noth- 
ing but his blood can cleanse from the sin of putting 
away from us the offered emblem of it. I know 
not how to make any apology for it. Jesus pleaded 
for his murderers, that they knew not what they 
did ; but those who disregard his dying injunction, 
know what they do. 

Eoxuses, it is true, they make ; but to what do 
they amount? Can any doubt that Christ said, 
"Do this ?" Can any doubt that he meant it to bo 
done by all who believe on him ? What reason can 
be imagined why one redeemed sinner should par- 
take of the emblems of the body and blood of Christ, 
which does not equally apply to every redeemed 
sinner ? Should not as many as the body was bro- 
ken and the blood shed for, partake of the memo- 
rials of that transaction? What propriety is there 
in limiting the command, "Do this," and not the 
declaration, "This is my body, broken for you?" 
If we put it on the ground of right to command, 
questions any one the right of Christ to issue man- 
dates ? What duty plainer — more peremptory ? Do 
some pay respect to this, who do not obey other 
commands of Christ ? What if it be so ? Is that a 
reason why you should add another to your acts of 
disobedience ? 

Do you refrain because it is a solemn transac- 
tion? Far more solemn are death, judgment^ and 



DO YOU REMEMBER CHRIST? 49 

eternity, from whicli, nevertheless, you cannot re- 
frain. Do you feel yourself to be too unworthy? 
But will this neglect make you less unworthy? A 
sense of unworthiness is a grand part of the quali- 
fication. Are you afraid of sinning, should you in 
this way remember Christ ? But you are certain of 
sinning by not remembering him. Say you, " I can- 
not trust myself?" But can you not trust Christ? 
If there is danger that you will prove faithless, yet 
is there any danger that he will ? It is because you 
are not to be trusted, that you should trust him who 
is able to keep that which is committed to him. If 
you trust him for strength, you are as sure of being 
supplied as of being pardoned, if you trust him for 
that. Why should not you remember Christ? He 
remembers you, yes, pi'actically remembers you ; 
nor one thing merely does in remembrance of you, 
but many. What if he should make excuses for 
not remembering you ? 

But perhaps you will cut short the interview by 
saying, *'I am now quite unprepared for this act; 
hereafter, I mean to attend to it." Be it known to 
you, then, that there are greater things for which 
you are unprepared, and they are things which you 
cannot evade or defer, as you can this ; and as to that 
hereafter on which you count, who art thou that 
boastest of to-morrow ? 



Prac Thoufebt*. 



50 PRACTICAL THOUGHTS. 

8. I DON'T LIKE PROFESSIONS. 

This is the reason which many give for not ac* 
knowledging Christ. They say, when urged upon 
the point, that they "don't like professions." A 
strange reason this for not obeying the express com- 
mand of the divine Saviour. What if they do not 
like professions, do they equally dislike obeying 
commands? If so, they had better say, "I don't 
like obedience to the commands of God." But they 
profess to be well disposed to obey ; it is only Xo pro- 
fessing that they object. Well, then, let them obey 
all the precepts which they find in the Bible, and 
we will not trouble them about a profession. Why 
should we ? In that case, they will obey the pre- 
cept which enjoins a profession; they will do the 
thing appointed in remembrance of Christ. 

But '•' I don't like professions." And who does like 
mere professions ? Who ever contended in favor ol 
a man's professing to have what he has not ? Pro- 
fessions are very different from r)iere professions 
Suppose a person has what he professes to have 
what then? What is the objection to a profession 
in that case? I see none. If a man loves the 
Lord Jesus, I can see no harm in professing or 
declaring his attachment to him. It is very natu- 
ral to declare it. We profess attachment to oth- 
ers — to relatives, friends, benefactors, pastors, civil 
rulers — why not to Christ? How does his being 



I DON'T LIKE PROFESSIONS. 51 

the subject of the profession constitute such an 
objection to it? Is he the only being to whom we 
may not profess attachment ? 

"Don't like professions?" Why, yes, they do. 
Professions of friendship, of patriotism, and of loy 
alty, they like. Why not of religion? Why should 
not religion be professed as well as other things? 
Are attachment to the gospel, love to Christ, re- 
gard for the authority of Jehovah, and adherence 
to his government, the only things never to be 
professed ? 

I do not see any objection to professions, but I see 
propriety and utility in them, even if it were optional 
with us to make them or not. If it were left to our 
choice, it strikes me we ought to choose to profess 
love and obedience to Christ. But suppose it is 
required, does not that alter the case ? Will these 
persons say they do not like what Grod requires? 
And does he not require a profession ? His inspired 
apostle twice exhorts Christians to hold fast their 
profession. Does not that imply that it is made, 
and ought to be made ? How is a person to hold on 
to that of which he has never taken hold ? Is not 
the public confession of Christ required when it is 
made a condition of salvation ? " If thou shalt confess^ 
with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe 
in thine heart that God hath raised him from the 
dead, thou shalt be saved." Rom. 10:9. Does not 
divine authority require it, when to the doing of it 



62 PRACTICAL THOUGHTS. 

is made one of the most precious promises in the 
whole Bible? "Whosoever therefore shall confess 
me before men, him will I confess also before my 
Father which is in heaven." Is not that duty, 
against the omission of which such a threatening 
lies as this: ''But whosover shall deny me before 
men, him will I also deny before my Father which 
is in heaven?^' Matt. 10 :32, 33. It is very plain 
that God requires professions, though some men do 
not like them. 

"You don't like professions." Then Joshua, a 
man that followed the Lord fully, falls under your 
censure, for he professed the service of God. "As 
for me and my house," said he, "we will serve the 
Lord." Are we to think the worse of him for this? 
Some ask what is the use of a profession. If they 
will observe what followed Joshua's profession, they 
will see the use of it. They will see that it brought 
out all Israel. ''We will also serve the Lord," said 
they ; and they entered that day into a covenant to 
serve him. JNTor did their practice belie their pro- 
fession; for it is recorded that "Israel served the 
Lord all the days of Joshua, and all the days of 
the elders that overlived Joshua." So much for a 
profession. It is agreed on all hands that that pro- 
fessing generation, in piety and devotion to God, 
surpassed any other during the national existence 
of Israel. 

We read in 1 Tim. 2 : 10, of certain things which 



I DON'T LIKE PROFESSIONS. 53 

are said to become ''women professing godliness." 
It would seem from this, to be the duty of women 
to profess godliness. And if of women, of men also, 
I suppose. What case o^ real subjection to the gos- 
pel of Christ do we read of, which was not also a 
case of "professed subjection" to it? Paul, in 2 Cor. 
9:13, speaks of some who glorified God for the 
"professed subjection" of others unto the gospel of 
Christ. It appears then that God is glorified by 
these professions. And I should presume, from cer- 
tain passages in the Bible, that he is not glorified 
when a profession is withheld. There were, in 
primitive times, some who did not like professions. 
It is no new thing not to like professions. In John 
12:42, 43, we read^ that ''among the chief rulers 
many believed on him, but," as they did not like 
professions, "because of the Pharisees they did not 
confess him ; for they loved the praise of men more 
than the praise of God." It is no honorable men- 
tion which is intended to be made of another, of 
whom it is said that he was "a disciple of Jesus, 
but secretly, for fear of the Jews." John 19:38. 
Fear made him decline a profession for a time ; but 
at length he came out openly on the side of Christ, 
and besought Pilate for the body of Jesus. 

If they who say they do not like professions, mean 
that they do not like false, dr loud, or ostentatious, 
or barely verbal professions, let them say so, and 
we will agree with them ; but let them not mean 



54 PRACTICAL THOUGHTS. 

this, and say, without qualification, they ''don't like 
professions." 

It is truly strange, because some now, as in apos- 
tolic times, "profess that they know God, but in 
Works deny him," that others will never profess to 
know him. Because men have professed friendship, 
and have proved no friends, therefore they will not 
only not profess friendship, but they will abstain 
from certain acts and expressions of friendship, 
because they involve a profession of it. It is a pity 
that men who are going to give an account of them- 
selves to God, sbould reason and act thus. 

Well, they must do as they please ; but of one 
thing I am sure. The hour is coming when, how- 
ever they may now dislike professions, they will like 
them. They may not now like to confess Christ 
before men, but they will then like to have Christ 
confess them before his Father. They may not like 
to call him now the beloved of their souls, but they 
will like to have him call them, on that day, the 
blessed of his Father 



SABBATH-SCHOOL TEACHER. 55 

9. ARE YOU A SABBATH-SCHOOL TEACHER ? 

I am a little apprehensive that the title of this 
article will be read by some who will give no hear- 
ing to the article itself. There are those Avho, being 
professors of religion, or at least well disposed there- 
to, are not Sabbath-school teachers, and yet strongly 
suspect sometimes that they ought to be. Such are 
not fond of reading an enumeration of the reasons 
why they should engage in this benevolent employ- 
ment, because these reasons are apt to appear more 
cogent than their objections to it. After such a 
perusal, they are very prone to feel as if they ought 
to take hold of this good work ; and not being pre- 
pared to do that, it is rather more agreeable to them 
not to have the feeling that they ought. It is un- 
comfortable to carry about with one a sense of obli- 
gation which he is not disposed to discharge. 

But I hope my apprehensions will be disappoint- 
ed; so I proceed to the article. Are you a Sabbath- 
school teacher ? If you are, you are engaged in a 
good work. Yes, it is good, both as acceptable to 
God, and as profitable to men. It is good in its 
direct operation, and good in its reflex action. It is 
not merely teaching the young idea how^ to shoot, 
but what is still more important, it is teaching the 
young and tender afl^ection what to fix upon, and 
where to entwine itself Nothing hallows the Sab- 
bath more than the benevolent employment of the 



56 PRACTICAL THOUGHTS. 

Sabbath-school teacher. It is more than lawful to 
do such good on the Sabbath-day. It has great 
reward. Continue to be a Sabbath-school teacher. 
Be not weary in this well-doing. Do not think you 
have served long enough in the capacity of teacher, 
until you have served life out, or until there shall 
be no need of one saying to another, "Know the 
Lord." What if it be laborious? It is the labor 
of love, in the very fatigue of which the soul finds 
refreshment. 

But perhaps you are not a Sabbath-school teacher. 
*'No, I am not," methinks I hear one say. "I am 
not a professor of religion. You cannot expect me 
to be a teacher." You ought to be both ; and your 
not being the first, is but a poor apology for declin- 
ing to be the other. The neglect of one obligation 
is a slim excuse for the neglect of another. You 
seem to admit, that if you professed religion, it 
would be your duty to teach in the Sabbath-school. 
Now, whose fault is it that you do not profess relig- 
ion? But I see no valid objection to your teaching 
a class of boys or girls how to read the word of God, 
though you be not a professor of religion. I can- 
not think that any person gets harm by thus doing 
good. Experience has shown that the business of 
teaching in the Sabbath-school is twice blessed — 
blessing the teacher as well as the taught. 

But you are ''not good enough," you say. Then 
you need so much the more the reaction of such an 



SABBATH. SCHOOL TEACHER. 57 

occupation to make you better. The way to get 
good, is to do it. **But I am not a young person.'' 
And what if you are not ? You need not be very 
young, in order to be a useful Sabbath-school teach 
er. We don't want mere novices in the Sabbath 
school. If you are not young, then you have so 
much more experience to assist you in the work. 
Do Sabbath-school teachers become supera7inuated 
so much earlier in life than any other class of ben- 
efactors — so much sooner than ministers and par- 
ents ? There is a prevailing mistake on this subject. 
But you are married, you say. And what if you 
are ? Because you have married a wife or a hus- 
band, is that any reason why you should not come 
into the Sabbath-school? Many people think that 
as soon as they are married, they are released from 
the obligation of assisting in the Sabbath-school. 
But I do not understand this to be one of the immu 
nities of matrimony. As well might they plead that 
in discharge of the obligation to every species of 
good-doing. Such might at least postpone this 
apology, till the cares of a family have come upon 
them. And even then, perhaps the best disposition 
they could make of their children on the Sabbath, 
would be to take them to the school. I wonder 
how many hours of the Sabbath are devot«»d to the 
instruction of their children, by those parents who 
make the necessity of attending to the religious 
culture of their families an apology for not entering 



58 PRACTICAL THOUGHTS 

the Sabbatli-scliool ; and I wonder if their children 
could not be attended to in other hours than those 
usually occupied in Sabbath-school' instruction ; and 
thus, while they are not neglected, other children 
who have no parents that care for their soul, receive 
a portion of their attention. I think this not impos- 
sible. But perhaps the wife pleads that she is no 
longer her own, and that her husband's wishes are 
opposed to her continuing a teacher. But has she 
ceased to be her Lord's by becoming her husband's? 
Does the husband step into all the rights of a Sav- 
iour over his redeemed? If such an objection is 
made, it is very clear that she has not regarded the 
direction to marry "only in the Lord." 

But perhaps you say, " There are enough others 
to teach in the Sabbath-school." There would not 
be enough — there would not be any, if all were like 
you. But it is a mistake; there are not enough 
others. You are wanted. Some five or six children, 
of whom Christ has said, ''Suffer them to come to 
me,", will grow up without either learning or relig- 
ion, unless you become a teacher. Are all the 
children in the place where you live gathered into 
the Sabbath-school ? Are there none that still wan- 
der on the Lord's day, illiterate and irreligious ? Is 
there a competent number of teachers in the exist- 
ing schools, so that more Avould rather be in the way 
than otherwise ? I do not know how it is where 
you live, but where I live, there are boys and girls 



SABBATH-SCHOOL TEACHER. 59 

enough, aye, too many, who go to no Sahbath-school. 
It is only for a teacher to go out on the Sabbath, 
and he readily collects a class of children willing 
to attend ; and where I reside, there are not teach- 
ers enough for the scholars already collected. Some 
classes are without a teacher; and presently the 
children stay away, because, they say, they come to 
the school, and there is no one to attend to them. 
He who said, *' Suffer the little children to come 
unto me, and forbid them not," knows this ; and he 
knows who of "his sacramental host" might take 
charge of these children, and do not. They say, 
every communion-season, ''Lord, what wilt thou 
have me to do?" and the Lord replies, "Suffer the 
little children to come unto me;" and there the 
matter ends. 

I visited recently an interesting school, composed 
of colored adults and children. It is taught partly 
by white persons, and partly by intelligent colored 
persons. It is languishing now for want of teach- 
ers. There were present some twenty-five or thirty 
females, and only tico female teachers. I wondered 
to see no more than two there, of those who were last 
at the cross and first at the sepulchre. I thought it 
a little out of character. One of these told me that 
often there had been forty present ; but as two could 
not attend to thera all, they had gradually become 
discouraged, and had dropped off one after another. 
They found they must give up learning to read, 



60 PRACTICAL THOUGHTS. 

though they wanted very much to learn to read the 
Bible. Some large classes of fine-looking boys sat 
there without any teacher. No man cared for them. 
I said it was a pity, but I thought it was a shame. 
The church with which this school is connected, 
abounds in able-bodied professors of religion, w^ho 
could easily supply this want. But they don't do it. 
They say they canit; but the truth is, they ivont. 
I know some have an antipathy to the colored ; but 
as I suppose they are comprehended in that " Avorld " 
of which we read, John 3:16, that God loved it, 
and certainly in that "whole world," of which we 
read, 1 John, 2 : 2, as connected with Christ's pro- 
pitiation, I have none. As for those, however, who 
are so much more fastidious than their Lord, there 
are w^hite children enough to employ them. 

But I hear one say, "I was once a teacher;" and 
do you not blush to own that you became weary in 
this species of well-doing ? '' But I think I taught 
long enough." How long did you teach? Till 
there were no more to learn ? Till you could teach 
no longer ? Are you dead ? If not, you are resting 
from your labors rather prematurely. This excuse 
resembles one which I heard of, as from a lady of 
w^ealth, who having for several years been a sub- 
scriber to the Bible Society, at length ordered her 
name to be stricken off, alleging, that she thought 
she had done her part towards disseminating the 
Bible. The world was not supplied; no, not 



SABBATH-SCHOOL TEACHER. 61 

even the country ; and her means were not ex- 
hausted. But she had done her part. Had she 
done ^vhat she could? The woman whom Jesus 
commended had "done what she could." But this 
is a digression. 

But one says, ''I want the Sabbath for myself; 
for rest and for improvement." And who does not ? 
Are you busily employed all the week? So are 
some of our most faithful teachers. You ought to 
be "diligent in business" during the days of the 
week. " Six days shalt thou labor." " But is there 
any rest in Sabbath-school teaching ?" The soul 
finds some of its sweetest rest in the works of mercy, 
and often its richest improvement in the care to 
improve others. 

But perhaps you say, though with some diffi- 
dence you express this objection, that you belong 
to a- circle in society whose members are not accus- 
tomed to teach in the Sabbath-school. Do you mean, 
that you are above the business ? You must be ex- 
ceedingly elevated in life to be above the business of 
gratuitously communicating the knowledge of God 
to the young and ignorant. You must be exalted 
above the very throne of God itself, if you are above 
caring for poor children. "But I should have to 
mingle with those beneath me in rank." Ah, I sup- 
posed that Christianity has destroyed the distmction 
of rank, not indeed by depressing any, but by ele- 
vating all. Should Christians, all cleansed by the 



62 PRACTICAL THOUGHTS. 

same blood and Spirit, treat other Christians as 



common 



7 



*' But I am not qualified to teach." If you are 
not in reality, you should undertake teaching for the 
sake of learning. The best way to learn any thing, 
is to teach it. If you only think yourself not qual 
ified, your very humility goes far towards qualify- 
ing you. 

"0, it is too laborious. There is so much self- 
denial in it." And do I hear a disciple of Christ 
complaining of labor and self denial, when these 
are among the very conditions of discipleship ? Is 
the disciple above his master? Can you follow 
Christ without going where he went? And went 
he not about doing good ? Pleased he himself? 

Ah, I know what is the reason of this deficiency 
of Sabbath-school teachers, and I will speak it out. 
It is owing to a deplorable want of Christian benev- 
olence in them who profess to be Christ's followers. 
They lack the love that is necessary to engage one 
in this labor of love. They have no heart for the 
work. 



THE MONTHLY CONCERT. 63 

10. DO YOU ATTEND THE MONTHLY CONCERT? 

I would like to have this piece read, though I 
know very well that many of those I ask to read it, 
could themselves write a better article on the same 
subject. I am a little afraid that some who do not 
attend the monthly concert, will read the heading 
of the article and then turn to something else, pre- 
sumed to be more interesting. As that, however, 
will look very much like a desire to evade the light, 
and an unwillingness to hear why we should attend 
the concert, I hope they will, through dread of that 
imputation, conclude to read the whole article. I 
cannot doubt they have their reasons for not attend- 
ing, and I promise that if they will have them 
printed, I will carefully read them, provided they 
will read my reasons in favor of attendance. 

I put a questio7i. I put it not to every body. I 
ask it not of the world, for the world is the object 
of the concert, and cannot be expected therefore to 
join in it. I put it to the professor of religion — the 
reputed disciple of Christ. I ask him if he attends 
the monthly concert ? He knows what I mean by 
that phrase — the meeting for prayer attended by 
Christians on the first Monday in each month, in 
which they offer their social supplications for the 
success of missions, the spread of the gospel, and 
the conversion of the world to God. Ml the mem- 
bers of the church do not attend it. The half ^o 



64 PRACTICAL THOUGHTS. 

not. "No ; the concert has not yet secured the ma- 
Jority of the church. Even " the sacramental host " 
are not as yet in favor of the conversion of the 
world, if attendance on the monthly concert may 
be made the test, as I think with the utmost pro- 
priety it may ; for surely he cannot have much of a 
desire for the world's conversion who will not meet 
once a month to express it in concert with other 
Christians. And this, I suppose, is the principal 
reason why the world is not converted, because the 
prayer-meetings of the church bear testimony that 
even she is not heartily in favor of it. when will 
the question, '' Shall the world be converted ?" be 
put to the church, and carried in the affirmative ? 
There will be joy in heaven when that result is 
reported there ; and then the work of the world's 
conversion will go rapidly forward, and nations be 
born in a day. Now, do you join in the concert, or 
are you one of those who make discord ? 

Many professors can say they do attend. I am 
glad so many can say it. You attend, but let me 
ask, do you love to attend ? 0, if you leave your 
hearts at home, that is bad. We want the heart at 
the monthly concert. It spoils all, if we have not 
the heart there to send up to heaven its sincere de- 
sires. " Prayer," you know, "■ is the heart's sincere 
desire." You attend, but do you attend habitually ^ 
or is it only occasionally that you go ? Do you at- 
tend twelve times a year, if Providence interpose no 



THE MONTHLY CONCERT. 55 

obstacle ? It is a monthly concert. It is intended 
that Christians should meet and pray together at 
least once a month. There are professors of relig- 
ion who attend the concert sometimes, perhaps on 
an average once in three months, and they think 
that is doing tolerably well. But what if others 
should do so. Then it would be no monthly con- 
cert, but a quarterly concert ; and such it should be 
now to suit the practice of too many of the church. 
But I think once a month, or twelve times a year, is 
not too often for Christians to meet together to pray, 
"Our Father — thy kingdom come." As a Chris- 
tian, Ifeel that it is not too often, and I think, if I 
was a heathen, and knew all that is involved in 
being a heathen, I should feel like being prayed for 
by Christians at least once a month. 0, it is not 
too often, either for us who pray, or for those for 
whom we pray. Then, fellow-Christians, let us 
attend every month, bringing along with us each 
one a heart touched with gratitude, melted into pity, 
fervent with love, full of faith, and as sure as we 
live, we shall bless and be blessed. 

"But they say it is not an interesting meeting." 
I don't know why it should be uninteresting to 
Christians. Is it because it is a prayer-meetm^ ; 
or because it is a prayer-meeting yb;* (9^/i^?*s? Does 
it lack interest because there is no loreachin^, and 
the very prayers are not for ourselves ? Will the 
disciple of Jesus make this confession? Will ho 

Pr»c. Thoufhti. 5 



66 PRACTICAL THOUGHTS. 

acknowledge that it takes away the interest of a 
meeting, when its character is so devotional, and its 
object so benevolent ? It has been asked, " How shall 
we contrive to make the monthly concert interesting 
to the people?" It is only the people themselves 
that can make it interesting. Let them come to it. 
Let the members of the church appear in their 
places on that evening. Let conscience bring them, 
if inclination does not ; and let him who is to pre- 
side in the meeting be cheered by the aspect of a 
full assembly, and the interest of the monthly con- 
cert is secured without the laying down of rules and 
observance of minute directions. Who ever found 
a well attended concert for prayer uninteresting? 

But one says, It sometimes rains, and I cannot at- 
tend. I know it sometimes rains ; but do you never 
go out in the rain for any purpose ? 0, Christian, 
if for any thing you ever go through the rain, go 
through the rain to the monthly concert. I sus- 
pect the rain does not hinder you from fulfilling an 
important engagement with a fellow-creature. Now 
I know that you have not specifically engaged to 
meet God at the monthly concert ; but there are 
voivs on you which, I am sure, include this. Are 
you not one of those who say, " Lord, what wilt thou 
have me to do ?" waiting for his answer? His an- 
swer comprehends many things, and among them 
is this. Indeed, I think the duty of attending the 
monthly concert is included in the general obliga- 



THE MONTHLY CONCERT. fSl 

tion to go ''into all the world" and "teach all na- 
tions ;" and you consented to it when you made the 
full uirrender. Therefore let not trifles detain you 
at home on the evening of the church's concert of 
prayer for the world. But if by necessity detained — 
if you go not, because on such a night you would 
go out for no purpose Avhatever, you can spend the 
hour in the closet praying for the world. That you 
will not fail to do. The closet is accessible in all 
weather. If you cannot go out to the prayer meet- 
ing, yet you can "enter into thy closet," and though 
your prayer will be a scZo, it will be as grateful to 
God as the ca?2ce;t of others. 

But some professors of religion never attend the 
monthly concert. What I propose to say to them, 
I must reserve for another article. 



11. WHY ALL CHUISTIANS SHOULD ATTEND THE 
MONTHLY CONCERT. 

It is a fact well known and deeply deplored, that 
some professors of religion never attend the monthly 
concert. Perhaps they never attend any of the pray- 
er-meetings of the church. It is not for me to say 
that such persons have no religion, though I must 
go so far as to say that I do not see how they can 
have a great deal. Nor does their religion appear 
to be of the kind contemplated in the New Testa- 



68 PRACTICAL THOUGHTS. 

raent. They may be Christians, but I am certain 
they are not primitive Christians. I do not, for my 
part, see how those who never met with their fel- 
low disciples for social prayer, can be acquitted of 
contemning that gracious promise of Christ, "If two 
of you shall agree on earth as touching any thing 
that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my 
Father which is in heaven." What an encourage- 
ment to concei'ts of prayer is conveyed in those words, 
"if two of you shall agree!'' How can they be 
supposed to love the presence of the Saviour who 
are not desirous to meet him " where two or three 
are gathered together in his name ?" If such dis- 
ciples had existed at that time, of course they would 
not have attended the meetings for prayer which 
preceded the memorable day of Pentecost. They 
would not have gone to the " upper room." Perhaps 
they would have made some excuse for their absence ; 
perhaps not. One might have said that he could 
not bear the air of a crowded room. Another, that 
he did not see why he could not pray as well at 
home. There were no such despisers of the prayer- 
meeting among the primitive disciples. They all 
frequented the upper room, " and all continued with 
one accord in prayer and supplication." that it 
were so now ! Fellow-disciples of the blessed Jesus, 
listen to a few plain reasons why we should all at- 
tend the monthly concert. 

1. It is a meeting of Christians. Should you 



THE MONTHLY CONCERT. 60 

not meet with Christians? God has made you so 
dial beings ; and Christians are the best company 
Should you not cultivate that kind of society on 
earth, with which you are to be associated for evei 
in heaven ? The same class of persons — they that 
feared the Lord — used to meet together in the days 
of Malachi ; and the Lord noted it down. Come 
then to the concert. 

2. It is a meeting of Christians for religious wor- 
ship. The concert is a sacred assembly. It invites 
not merely to mutual intercourse, but to intercourse 
with God and heaven. In it we meet one with 
another, that we may together meet the Lord ; and 
if he kept a book of remembrance for them who 
feared him, and who met for conference with each 
other, will he not much more for those who meet 
for communion with himself? 

3. It is the most interesting kind of religious 
meeting. It is a_29ra^£'r-meeting. Its exercises con- 
sist in prayer, interspersed with praise. The song 
of gratitude and the supplication of blessing ascend 
alternately. it is good to be there. What Chris- 
tian but loves the prayer-meeting ? 

4. It is the most interesting of all prayer-meetings. 
I had rather be absent from any other than from this. 
Think how large a concert it is — how many voices 
join in it, and hearts still more. From how many 
lands — in how many languages they pray ; yet with 
one desire, and for a single object. Think of that 



70 PRACTICAL THOUGHTS. 

object — its unity, its grandeur, its benevolence — a 
world lying in wickedness — the speedy conversion 
of that world to God. In the -monthly concert, 
Christians meet to express together to their God 
this one great benevolent desire. And ought not 
you to bo there ? 

But what gives the greatest interest to the concert 
is, that Christ himself in substance established it. 
Yes, he has taught us so to pray. His disciples 
asked him how they should pray, and he answered, 
that they should pra?/ socially for the cojiversion of 
the tvorld, namely, that they should meet under 
circumstances which would justify the use of the 
plural number, "Our Father," etc.; and thus met, 
that they should pray together. " Thy kingdom come. 
Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven." Now, 
is not this just what we do in the monthly concert ? 
We put in practice that lesson of Christ on prayer. 
That is the amount of it. The missionary concert 
has then the sanction of the Master, however some 
of his professed disciples may regard it. Is it so ? 
Then I ask not, will you come to the concert, but 
how can you stay away ? 

5. It is good to draw near to God in prayer for a 
guilty and dying world. Christians find it so. If 
they benefit no others, yet they benefit themselves. 
God bestows blessing on them while they implore 
blessing for others. 

6. It is kind to the poor heathen thus to meet one© 



THE MONTHLY CONCERT. 71 

a montli and pray that tliey may possess the same 
gospel of the grace of God which has brought 
salvation to us. If we were in their situation, and 
knew what it was to he in such a situation, we 
should wish Christians to pray for us. And shall 
not we, being Christians, pray for them? The 
golden rule requires it. The love of Christ con- 
strains to it. How shall we not pray for them ? 
How shall I be able to answer for it, I say not to 
God, but to my poor pagan brother that I shall meet 
before the bar of our common Judge, if I let him go 
into eternity without even praying that the light of 
the gospel may illuminate his dark mind? How 
shall I be able to bear his reproachful recognition 
of me as a Christian? I will take care not to lie 
under the accusation. I will pray for him. 

7. Nothing so cheers the hearts of our missiona- 
ries, and nothing so encourages them in their work, 
as when they hear of well-attended concerts. So 
they tell us ; and they WTite back that nothing they 
meet with on the field of their labors depresses and 
discourages them so much as the intelligence they re- 
ceive from home, that Christians neglect the monthly 
concert, and few of the churches meet to pray for 
them. They know that they cannot succeed with- 
out God, and they know that it is prayer which 
engages God to work effectually with them. 0, if 
we could but send them word by the next ships that 
go, that Christians in crowds come up to the mission- 



/2 PRACTICAL, THOUGHTS. 

ary prayer-meeting, and the place of the monthly 
concert is thronged, they would be able, I have no 
doubt, to send us word back, perhaps by those very 
ships returning, that the heathen in crowds gather 
around them inquiring the way of salvation, and 
that many have gone even unto Christ, and become 
partakers of his grace. But in vain shall we expect 
to hear very cheering intelligence from them, while 
the intelligence they receive from us is no more 
cheering. it is base treatment of our missionary 
brethren and sisters, as well as gross dereliction of 
the duty imposed by the Saviour's last command, 
not to meet and pray for them. 

But why should I multiply reasons? Will you 
not attend henceforth ? If, after all, you will not, 1 
can only say, I am sorry — sorr)^ on two accounts — 
sorry for the heathen, and sorry for you. 



13. WILL ANY CHRISTIAN BE ABSENT FR0:M THE 
NEXT CONCERT ? 

The monthly concert of prayer for the success of 
missions and the salvation of the world. I wonder, 
indeed, that any Christian is ever voluntarily absent 
"rom that prayer-meeting ; but from that of Monday 
next, what Christian that is a Christian can of 
choice absent himself? Why, what particular at- 
traction will there be in the next concert, that a 



* 



;the monthly concert. 73 

Christian should attend that, if never another, 
do you ask? Can you not imagine? Have you 
not heard the news brought by the last ship from 
eastern and southern Asia? When came a ship so 
freighted with tidings ? Morrison is dead. What 
Christian will not go to the next concert, if for no 
other reason, to offer praise to God that Morrison 
lived, and lived so long, and was enabled to accom- 
plish the magnificent work of translating the word 
of God into the language read and spoken by one- 
third of human kind ? 

But that is not all the news the ship brought. It 
came fraught with heavy tidings. How many tears 
have already been shed at the recital — tears of grief 
for the dead, and tears of sympathy for the living — 
the widows, and the mothers; for one, perhaps 
each, left a mother. Lyman and Munson, in the 
flower of their youth, and on the threshold of their 
labors, have fallen, not the subject of nature's grad- 
ual decay, nor by some fell eastern disease, but the 
victims of violence, the food of cannibals. This is 
something new. We have never before had intelli- 
gence like this from our missionary fields. We have 
never had so loud a call in Providence to the con- 
cert. What Christian will not obey it, and go on 
Monday to weep as well as praise, and to mingle 
with tears and praises, prayer for those poor brutal 
men that did the deed, and for them whose hearts 
it has so deeply stricken ? And what Christian, 



74 PRACTICAL THOUGHTS. 

who properly estimates his privileges and duly re 
gards his obligations, will not, on that occasion, let 
fall some drops of sorrow for his past remissness in 
praying for missionaries ? 

I have said to myself since I heard of this out- 
rage, "So much for not attending the monthly con- 
cert — so much for not praying more for missionaries." 
I may be mistaken. The reader will judge. But so 
it has struck me. The church sent out these mis- 
sionaries, and many more than half of her reputed 
children have never met to pray for them. Whether 
the same remembered them in the closet and around 
the fireside, I cannot say, but I fear they did not. 

There is one most touching part of the melan- 
choly tale. It is related that one of the mission, 
aries — I hope we shall never know which it was — 
was killed and eaten first, the other being compelled 
to be a spectator of the whole savage ceremony, 
with the knowledge that he was reserved for a 
similar fate. How he must have felt. Poor, dear 
brother, I fear we never prayed for thee as we ought. 
You could go from country and home and mothert 
to seek a spot in savage Sumatra to plant the cross 
and preach Jesus, while tve could not once a month 
leave our firesides long enough just to go and pray 
for you, that God would protect you and give you 
favor in the sight of the heathen. this neglect 
of the monthly concert is a cruel thing. This for- 
getfulness to pray for missionaries, how dwelleth the 



HOW CAME IT TO PASS? 75 

love of God in the same heart with it? Perhaps 
this was one of the multitude of thoughts that passed 
through his mind while he waited to be sacrificed, 
and while he perceived that God, though with him 
to support and to save him, was not with him to 
protect him from the fierceness of man. Perhaps 
he thought, '-'0, if Christians had been more uni- 
formly and earnestly mindful of us in the closet, the 
family, and the concert, the hand that holds even 
the savage heart, might have turned it to pity, and 
spared us. But his will be done. Bitter as is the 
cup we drink, it is not so bitter as the cup that was 
drunk for us." Let us all go to the coming concert, 
and humble ourselves together ; and from his humil- 
iation let each pray, "Deliver me from blood-guilti- 
ness, God, thou God of my salvation.'^ 



13. HOW CAME IT TO PASS ? 

That three thousand were converted on the day 
of Pentecost, how came it to pass ? The truth as 
it is in Jesus was preached, and the power of God 
accompanied and made the truth effectual. But 
had not the meeting for prayer, of which mention is 
made in Acts 1 : 14, a close and influential connec- 
tion with the glorious results of that day and that 
discourse? Undoubtedly it had. But what was 
there in that meeting of the hundred and twenty 



76 PRACTICAL THOUGHTS. 

disciples, to exert an influence to the conversion of 
three thousand individuals? Whence had it that 
power? I answer, it was a prayer-meGting, pro- 
fessedly and mainly a prayer-meeting. If it had 
been a meeting for preaching, it would not have 
exerted the influence it did, even though prayer had 
preceded and followed the sermon. It was a prayer- 
meeting, a meeting of Christians to express their 
dependence on God ; unitedly to call on him for his 
blessing ; to plead the promise, and to wait for the 
fulfilment of it. Those are the efficient meetings, in 
which Christians meet and agree to ask of God. I 
M^onder they do not value them more. To the 
prayer-meeting Christians come to exercise the high 
privilege of intercession for others ; to do good and 
to communicate; to act the "more blessed" part; 
whereas, to meetings of another kind, they go for 
the less benevolent purpose of receiving good. Yet 
Christians value no meetings so little as prayer- 
meetings. And, shame, no prayer-meeting do 
they value so little as that which Christ himself 
may be said to have established in saying, "When 
ye pray, say, Our Father which art in heaven; 
hallowed be thy name; thy kingdom come" — the 
monthly concert. Though it occur but once a 
month, and though our Saviour, in the prayer he 
has given us, has expressly instructed us to 'pi'ay 
socially for the conversion of the ivorld, yet how 
attended I I pity the heathen, that so few are dis- 



' 



HO^ CAME IT TO PASS? 77 

posed to meet to pray for them. For the church, I 
blush that it should be so. 

But the influence of that meeting of a hundred 
and twenty was not owing entirely to its being a 
prayer-meeting. Many meetings for prayer are 
held, and no such effects follow. There must have 
been someihmg peculiar about that prayer-meeting, 
to account for its efficacy. Th^re was much by 
which it was distinguished from ordinary prayer- 
meetings. The mention of some of these peculiari- 
ties may be of service. It may provoke imitation in 
some churches. 

1 . All the church attended that prayer-meeting. 
"These all continued," etc. There were but a 
hundred and twenty disciples, and they were all 
present. Not a member of the church was absent, 
unless providentially detained. How different is it 
now. Now, if so many as a hundred and twenty 
can be collected in a prayer-meeting, yet they rep- 
resent perhaps a church of five or six hundred com- 
municants, and all the rest are with one accord 
absent. They who meet may agree among them- 
selves to ask for an outpouring of the Spirit, but it 
is, after all, but the agreement of a minority of the 
church. The majority, by their absence, dissent 
from the request. 

2. As all attended, of course the me?i attended 
as well as the women. Yes, every male member of 
the church was present; and I suppose the males 



78 PRACTICAL THOUGHTS. 

were more than one half of the whole number. 
They did not leave it to the women to sustain the 
prayer-meetings. That prayer-meeting had not the 
aspect of many a modern prayer-meeting, in which 
almost ail are of the weaker sex. 

3. The most distinguished membevs of the church 
attended, as well as the most obscure. There were 
all the apostles, and "Mary the mother of Jesus," 
and "his brethren." JM'one of them felt above being 
at a prayer-meeting. How is it now ? Let that 
question answer itself. 

4. They were all agreed, "of one accord," as it is 
said. Not merely agreed as touching what they 
should ask, namely, the fulfilment of "the promise 
of the Father," but of o?ie 77zind generally — aye, 
and of one heart. They thought and felt alike. 
They all loved one another. They observed the 
new commandment. Such cordial union among 
Christians has great power with God. It does not 
always exist in our prayer-meetings. 

5. They persevered in prayer. " These all con- 
tinned in prayer." First they stirred themselves 
up to take hold on God, and then they said, "We 
will not let thee go, except thou bless us." They 
met often for prayer, and all met, and they lingered 
long at the throne of grace. There were not some 
who came to the meeting once for a wonder, or only 
occasionally. No; ''these all co?ttinued,'' etc. It 
is not so now. But how long did they continue 



HOW CAME IT TO PASS? 79 

asking? Until tliey obtained; and then they did 
but pass from the note of prayer to that of praise. 
They sought the Lord until he came. It is time 
we all should do it. They were together — holding 
meeting — when the Spirit descended. 

I think, if all our church-members would hahit 
ually attend the prayer-meetings, men as well as 
women, rich as well as poor, and be "of one ac- 
cord" in heart, as well as in judgment, and would 
continue in prayer, they would not wait in vain for 
"the promise of the Father." for such prayer- 
meetings I Bat now they are despised by many. 
How often we hear it said, It is nothing but a 
prayer-meeting. Nothing but I I should like, for 
my part, to know what surpasses a prayer-meeting. 
A.nd often on what unworthy conditions do those 
called Christians suspend their attendance. They 
must know who is to conduct the meeting, who will 
probably lead in prayer, and from whom a word of 
exhortation may be expected ; and if the meeting is 
not likely to be to their mind, they will not attend 
it. This thing ought not so to be. 



80 PRACTICAL THOUGHTS. 



14. WHY THE AVORLD IS ITOT CONYEHTED. 

The world is 7iot converted. The melancholy 
fact stares us in the face. Yet the world is to he 
converted. That delightful truth shines conspicu- 
ous on the pages of the Bihle. AYhy is it not already 
converted ? It ought to have heen converted ere 
this. Eighteen centuries ago it was well-nigh con- 
verted. But 7101V the world is far, very far from 
being converted. It "lieth in wickedness." \'\liat 
is the meaning of it ? Why is it not converted ? 
Whose is the fault ? Look not up to heaven with 
the inquiry, as if the reason was to he found there, 
among the mysteries of the eternal Mind. Look 
elsewhere. The fact we deplore results not from 
any lack of benevolent disposition in God. No ; 
"God so loved the ivorld, that he gave his only be- 
gotten Son, that wlwsoever believeth in him should 
not perish, b jt have everlasting life." What could 
he VduNQ f'J,t or done more ? The object of his love, 
the world ; its gift, his Son I Could it have been 
more comprehensive, or more munificent ? Nor is 
the rea'ion found in any deficiency in the atonement 
made by Christ, for he is the propitiation "for the 
sins of the ichole icorld,^' the Lamb of God w^ho 
" taketh away the sin of the ivorld. '' Nor is it owing 
to any limitation in the commission of the Holy 
Spirit ; for of him it is testified, that when he should 



WORLD NOT CONVERTED. 81 

come, he should ''reprove the world of sin:" and 
the commission to the human agents of the work 
was as extensive, " Go ye into all the world — preach 
the gospel to every creature — teach all nations>y 
And the promise of the presence and power of Christ 
to be with them is also without restriction. See 
what goes before, and what comes after that great 
commission. The words which precede it are, '' All 
power is given unto me in heaven and in earth." 
The words which follow are, "And lo, I am with 
you always, even unto the end of the world." You 
must look somewhere else than upward for the rea 
son why the world is not converted. Look beneath^ 
around, ivithin. 

I propose to assign a few reasons why the world 
is not converted. 

1. The tvorld does not wish to be converted. 
That v/hich is to be the subject of conversion is a 
foe to it. It resists the influence that would convert 
it to God. What means that language, "My Spir- 
it shall not always st7ive with man ?" Striving im- 
plies opposition offered. The opposition is made by 
the will. The universal will of man resists the 
work of the Spirit of God. And that thing, the will, 
is a tremendous obstacle opposed to conversion. It 
is more than a match for all the motives you can 
brin^ to bear upon it. It wont move for motives. 
The Lord alone can master it. 0, if the world had 
of itself been willing to be converted, it should long 



82 PRACTICAL THOUGHTS. 

ere this have been brought back to God. It is but 
to be willing, and the thing is done. 

2. The devil, who in the Bible is called "the god 
of this world," is opposed to its conversion. Now, 
it must be very much in the way of the world's con- 
version, that not only itself, but its god is opposed to 
it. The will is a powerful foe of itself; but when 
the will is in league with Satan, who is callbd the 
adversary, by way of eminence, what an enemy the 
combination must produce. The devil and the heart, 
what a formidable alliance. Satan is uncere in his 
opposition to the conversion of the world ; that is, 
he is really opposed to it. He does not merely 
pretend to be. And he is in earnest. His heart is 
in the work of opposing the world's conversion— 
and he does all he can to prevent it. The friends 
of the conversion of the world do ^wt all they can to 
'P'omote it. Would that they did. But Satan does 
all he can to prevent it= Ah, why cannot we do 
as much for Christ as his enemies do against him ? 
Why don't Christians do all they can? Satan does 
all he can, and that is a great deal ; for he was one 
of those angels "that excel in strength," and though 
by his fall he lost all holiness, he lost no 'power. He 
is as potent as ever, possessed of very great energy, 
and he exerts it all in the enterprise of opposing 
God in the conversion of the world. And he does 
not stand still and exert his power, but goeth " to 
and fro in the earth." Yea, "as a roaring lion, 



WORLD NOT CONVERTED 83 

walketli about, seeJcing whom he may devour." He 
does not wait for his prey, but hunts for it. Yet he 
has not always the lion look, for sometimes " Satan 
himself is transformed into an angel of light;" nor 
does he always roar. He can let his voice down to 
the softest whisper, which the ear he breathes it into 
alone can hear ; and Satan does not act alone. He 
is assisted by myriads of kindred spirits. They were 
many, we are told, that possessed one man — yes, a 
legion. How many they must be in all ; and all 
engaged in the same opposition — aye, and multi- 
tudes of men are even now in league with them, 
engaged in the devils' work as heartily as if they 
were of that race. Is not this a strong reason why 
the world is not converted ? Have I not given two 
such reasons ? But I have a stronger. 

3. The church is not heartily in favor of the 
world's conversion. And when I affirm this of the 
church, I refer not to those who rest in the form of 
godliness,, and have but a nominal life. No wonder 
the unconverted, though they may be members of 
the visible church, should not be concerned for the 
conversion of others. But I mean that real Chris- 
tians who have themselves been converted, are not 
heartily in favor of it. Yes, the converted part of 
the world are not heartily in favor of the conversion, 
of the great remainder. And this is the principal 
reason why it is not converted. What if the world 
's not in favor of it, and Satan is not ? It was never 



84 PRACTICAL THOUGHTS. 

intended that the world should be converted by their 
instrumentality, but in spite of their opposition. But 
that the church, to whom is given the commission, 
to whom is committed the instrumentality which 
God blesses for conversion, and to whom even Christ 
looks with expectation, should not enter into the 
work with all her soul and strength, how strange 
and how lamentable I I know that Christians say 
they are in favor of it, and I will not question their 
sincerity, but I wish they gave such proof of being 
sincere and in earnest as Satan and his allies do. 
Actions have a tongue, and they speak louder than 
words. Satan's actions declare unequivocally that 
he is a foe to the world's conversion. Do our actions 
proclaim as unequivocally that we are its friends? 
We say we desire the world's conversion ; but what 
say our prayers, our contrihiitions, our efforts, our 
conduct ? We talk as if we desired it, but do we 
pi-ay, do we contribute, do we labor, do we live as if 
we desired it ? In this matter our unsupported word 
will not be received as proof. 

Why, if we who love the Lord are heartily in 
favor of the world's becoming his, are we so divided 
among ourselves? The enemies of the world's con- 
version are united. Yes, they forget their private 
differences when the cause of Jesus is to be attacked, 
and one heart animates the whole infernal host. But 
the friends of the great enterprise are divided, and 
much of their force is spent in skirmishes among 



WORLD NOT CONVERTED. 8d 

themselves, while the common enemy in the mean- 
time is permitted to make an almost unresisted prog- 
ress. It is a pity, a great pity. It ought not to he 
so. The great aggressive enterprise of the world's 
conversion demands all our resources, and yet we 
are expending them in mutual assaults. "When will 
it be otherwise? When will Christians agree on a 
truce among themselves, and march in one mighty 
phalanx against the world, to the service to which 
the Captain of salvation calls them? When shall 
it once be? I do not know, but I do know that 
when it takes place, the j^rs^ of the thousand years 
will not be far off. 

Fellow-soldiers of the cross, what are we about ? 
Let w^ form. Let us put on our complete armor: 
some of us are not in full panoply. And let us sing 
together one of the songs of Zion, and to that music 
let us march on to the conquest of the world for 
Jesus. He is already in the field, let us hasten to 
his support. Let us go to his help against the 
mighty. Let us leave all, even our mutual dissen- 
sions, suspicions, and jealousies, and follow him — 
and presently the world shall be converted. 



86 PRACTICAL THOUGHTS. 

15. THE CO:N"yEIlSION OF THE CHURCH. 

We hear a great deal nowadays about the con- 
version of the world. It is in almost every Chris- 
tian's mouth ; and w^e cannot be too familiar with 
the phrase — we cannot be too diligent to promote 
the thing. It ought to have our daily thoughts, 
prayers, and efforts. It deserves our hearts. It is 
the great object of Christianity. But there is an- 
other community besides the world, W'hich I think 
needs to undergo a measure of the same process that 
the w^orld so much needs. It is the church. While 
the conversion of the world is made so prominent, 
I think we ought not to overlook the cojiversion of 
the church, especially since this comes first in order. 

Every thing, w-e know, begins at the house of 
God, both in judgment and mercy. But w^hat do I 
mean by the conversion of the church? Is not the 
church converted already ? Suppose I admit that ; 
may she not need a new conversion ? Hegeneration 
is but once, but conversion may be many times. 
Peter had been converted when Christ said to him, 
''And when thou art converted, strengthen thy 
brethren." There is no doubt the church might be 
converted again, and that without any injury to 
her. 

But why do I think the church needs conversion? 
I might give several reasons, but I w^ill assign only 
one. It is founded on Matthew 18:3,*' Except ye 



CONVERSION OF THE CHURCH. 87 

"be converted, and become as little cliildreji.^^ Here 
we see the effect of conversion, is to make the sub- 
^'ects of it as little children; and hence St. John 
addresses the primitive Christians as little children. 
Now, my reason for thinking the church needs con- 
version is, that there does not seem to be much of 
the little child about the church of the present day. 
There is a great deal more of ''the old man" about 
it, I am afraid. I think, if John were living now, 
he would not be apt to address the members of the 
church generally as '' little children." No indeed. 
I question whether, if he were even addressing an 
assembly of the ministers and officers of many of 
our churches, he would not be apt to apply other 
terms than "little children," as a preface to his ex- 
hortation, "love one another," which I am sure he 
would not forget. 

Little children are humble, but humility is not a 
remarkable characteristic of the church of the pres- 
ent day. I don't think the scholars of either of the 
schools have got the lesson of lowliness very per- 
fectly from their Master. I fear, if the Master were 
to come in upon us now, he would be- likely to 
chide many in both the schools. Why two schools ? 
There is but one Master. 

How confiding little children are, and how ready 
to belitive, on the bare word of one in whom they 
have reason to feel confidence ; and especially, if he 
be a father. But not so the church. " Thus saith 



68 PRACTICAL THOUGHTS. 

the Lord" does not satisfy her sons now. They 
must have better reasons for believing than that. 
They must hear first what he has to say, and then 
see if they can get a confirmation of it from any 
quarter, before they will believe it. How uncere- 
moniously many of these children treat some of 
the things which their Father very evidently says, 
because they do not strike them as in accordance 
with reason, justice, or common-sense. 

How docile the little child is. Mary, who *'sat 
at Jesus' feet and heard his word," was such a child. 
Never a ivhy or a how asked she of him. I cannot 
say so muf*h for the church of our day. Simplicity 
also characterizes little children. How open and 
artless they are, how free from guile. Such was 
Nathanael. Whether this trait of character be con- 
spicuous in the church now, let the reader say. 

Little children are moreover characterized by love, 
and their charity "thinketh no evil." How unsus- 
picious they are. But too much of the charity of 
the present day, so far from thinking no evil, think- 
eth no good. It suspects every body. It "hopeth" 
nothing. Indeed love, and her sister peace, which 
used to lead the graces, are become as wall-Jlcnvers 
with many, into such neglect have they fallen. 
They seem to be quite out of the question with 
many. Some good men appear to think, that con- 
tending for the faith is the end of the commandment 
and the fulfilling of the law. But it is not. It is a 



• 



CONVERSION OF THE CHURCH. 89 

duty, an important duty ; one too little regarded by 
many ; one never to be sneered at as by some it is. 
I acknowledge, some treat it as if it were notbing. 
I only say, it is not every tbing. Tbere is ivalking 
in love, d.Vi^ following 'peace, whicb, as well as con- 
tending for the faith, are unrepealed law^s of Clirist's 
house. I believe they can all be done, and that each 
is best done when the others are not neglected. I 
am sure truth never lost any thing by being spoken 
in love. I am of opinion, that a principal reason 
why we are not more of one mind is, that we are not 
more of one heart. How soon they who feel heart 
to heart, begin to see eye to eye. The way to think 
alike, is first to feel alike ; and if the feeling be love, 
the thought will be truth. I wdsh, therefore, for the 
sake of sound doctrine, that the brethren could love 
one another. What if we see error in each other to 
condemn, can we not find any thing amiable to love ? 
I would the experiment might be made. Let us not 
cease to contend for the faith, not merely for its own 
sake, but for love's sake, because "faith worketh by 
love." But in the conflict, let us be careful to shield 
love. It is a victory for truth scarcely worth gaining, 
if charity be left bleeding on the field of battle. 

You see why I think the church wants convert- 
ing. It is to bring her back to humility and sim- 
plicity and love. I wish she would attend to this 
matter. She need not relax her efibrts for the world. 
She has time enouorh to turn a few reflex acts on 



90 PRACTICAL THOUGHTS. 

herself. The object of the church is to make the 
world like herself But let her in the meantime 
make herself more like what the world ought to be. 
It is scarcely desirable that the world should be as 
the church in general now is. Let her become a 
better model for the world's imitation. Her voice is 
heard for Christ; but let her "hold forth the word 
of life " in her conduct, as well as by her voice. Let 
her light shine. Let her good works be manifest. 
Let her heaven-breathed spirit breathe abroad the 
same spirit. 

The work of the conversion of the world goes on 
slowly ; but it makes as much progress as the work 
of the conversion of the church does. Iso more 
sinners are converted, because no more Christians 
are converted. The world will continue to lie in 
wickedness, while "the ways of Zion mourn " as they 
do. Does any one wonder that iniquity abounds, 
when the love of so many has waxed cold? We 
are sending the light of truth abroad when we have 
but little of the warmth of love at home. 

We are often asked what we are doing for the 
conversion of the world. We ought to be doing a 
great deal, all we can. But I would ask, what are 
w^e doing for the conversion of the church ? What 
to promote holiness nearer home, among our fellow- 
Christians and in our own hearts ? Let us not forget 
the world ; but at the same time, let us remember 
Ziou. 



INCtUIRING SAINTS. 91 



16. INQUIRi:xa SAINTS. 



I was asked, the other day, whether I had had 
any recent meeting for inquirers. I replied that I 
had not ; that there were few inquiring sinners in 
the congregation, and I judged the reason to he, that 
there were few inquiring sai7its. " Inquiring saints I 
that is a new phrase. We always supposed that 
inquiring belonged exclusively to sinners / ' It is not 
so. Do we not read in Ezekiel 36:37, '' Thus saith 
the Lord God, I will yet for this be inquired of by 
the house of Israel, to do it for them ?" — by the Iwuse 
of Israel, that is. by his people, by the church. You 
see that God requires and expects his covenanted 
people to inquire. It is true that saints do not make 
the same inquiry that sinners do. The latter ask 
what they must do to be saved, whereas the inquiry 
of Christians is, "Wilt thou not revive us again?" 
It is a blessed state of things when the people of God 
are inquiring. It is good for themselves, and it has 
a most benign influence on others. When the peo- 
ple of God inquire, presently the impenitent begin to 
inquire. That question, "Wilt thou not revive us ?" 
is soon followed by the other, "What must I do to 
be saved?" Yes, when saints become anxious, it is 
not long ere sinners become anxious. The inquiry 
of the three thousand on the day of Pentecost, "Men 
and brethren, what shall we do?" was preceded by 
the inquiry of the one hundred and twenty, who " all 



92 PRACTICAL THOUGHTS. 

continued with one accord in prayer and supplica- 
tion." Generally, I suppose, that is the cn'der. First 
saints inquire, and then sinners. And whenever, 
in any congregation, religion does not flourish, one 
principal reason of it is, that the saints are not in- 
quiring. They do not attend their inquiry-meeting 
appointed for them. The saints' inquiry-meeting 
is the prayer-meeting. In that. Christians meet 
together to inquire of the Lord "to do it for them," 
that is, to fulfil the promise about the new heart 
and the new spirit, of which he had been speaking. 
Now, when this meeting is crowded and interest- 
ing, when the inquiry among Christians is general 
and earnest and importunate, the sinners' inquiry- 
meeting usually becomes crowded and interesting. 
that I could make my voice to be heard by all 
the dear people of God in the land on this subject. 
I would say, "You wonder and lament that sinners 
do not inquire. But are you inquiring? You won- 
der that they do noi feel. But do you feel ? Can you 
expect a heart of stone to feel when a heart o^ flesh 
does not ? You are surprised that sinners can sleep. 
It is because you sleep alongside of them. Do you 
but awake, and bestir yourselves, and look up and 
cry to God, and you will see how soon they will 
begin to be roused, and to look about them, and to 
ask the meaning of your solicitude." that the 
saints would but inquire. That is what I want 
to see. 



INQUIRING SAINTS. 93 

We hear a good deal said about the anxious-seat. 
Concerning the propriety of the thing signified by 
that not very elegant expression, we will not now 
dispute, especially since that seat is at present pretty 
much vacant everywhere. I only wish that the 
place where Christians sit were a more anxious 
seat than it is. 

Neither will I engage in pending controversy 
about measures, new and old. What I fear most 
from the controversy is, that it will cause many to 
become no-measure men. I do not know why we 
want F,o many measures, if we will only make good 
use of those we have. There are tw^o measures 
which, if generally adopted and faithfully applied, 
will, I think, answer every purpose. You may call 
them neiv or old. They are both. They are old, yet 
like the new commandment and the new song of 
which we read in the Bible, ever new. The first is 
the measure of plain evangelical preaching " in sea- 
son, out of season," and '' not with wisdom of words." 
The other is the measure of united and fervent pray- 
er, such as preceded the memorable events of the day 
of Pentecost. I am for these old, yet ever new meas- 
ures. that the brethren of every name would take 
fast hold of these measures, and hold on to them. I 
think then we should not want many more meas- 
ures. Praying and preaching used to be ''mighty, 
through G-od, to the pulling down of strongholds." 
I aw «5in «i thoy will never fail. Let us employ thenip 



94 PRACTICAL THOUGHTS. 

17. DO YOU PAY FOU A RELiaiOUS NEWSPAPER ? 

I was going to ask the question in another form, 
**Do you read a religious newspaper?" But then I 
reflected that many read a religious newspaper who 
do not themselves subscribe for one, they being in 
the habit of borrowing from their neighbors, and 
after sending and respectfully soliciting the loan of 
the paper before the family have read it, and not 
unfrequently keeping it a length of time greater than 
the golden rule will exactly justify. Then I had 
like to have thrown the question into this shape: 
*' Do you subscribe for a religious newspaper ?" But 
it struck me all at once that some subscribe for a 
paper, but do not pay for it. I have heard this com- 
plaint made, and I have no doubt there is foundation 
enough for it. I, for my part, would advise such 
persons to take a moral newspaper, if they can find 
such a thing. That is the sort of paper they require. 
A religious newspaper is quite too far advanced for 
them. I don't know, and cannot conceive, why these 
non-payers want to read a religious newspaper. I 
should suppose they would be satisfied with secular 
newspapers. I can imagine that they may desire, 
notwithstanding their delinquency, to know what is 
going on in the world; but why they should care to 
know how things go in the church, I cannot con- 
jecture. What do those who do not give any thing 
for value received, want to know about revivals, 



RELIGIOUS NEWSPAIER. 95 

missions, etc. ? Here are persons who would starve 
editors, publishers, printers, and paper-makers — the 
whole concern — into a premature grave, who say, 
*'Send me your paper," implying, of course, that 
they will send the money in return, yet never send 
it ; and yet they want to know all about the progress 
that is making in converting souls to God, and what 
is doing among the heathen. Is not this strange, 
that having never learned as yet to practise the first 
and easiest lesson of honesty, they should wish to 
read every thing about godliness and vital piety? 
So I concluded to head the article, **Do you pay 
for a religious newspaper ?" 

Do you, reader ? If you do, continue to take and 
read and pay for it ; and be slow to withdraw your 
subscription. Give up many things before you give 
up your religious newspaper. If any one that ought 
to take such a paper does not, I hope that some one 
to vv'^hom the circumstance is known, will volunteer 
the loan of this to him, directing his attention par- 
ticularly to this article. Who is he ? A professor ot 
religion? It cannot be. A professor of religion, and 
not taking a religious newspaper ! A member of the 
visible church, and voluntarily without the means 
of information as to what is going on in that church. 
A follower of Christ, praying daily, as taught by his 
Master, " Thy kingdom come," and yet not knowing, 
nor caring to know, what progress that kingdom is 
making. Here is one of those to whom Christ said, 



96 PRACTICAL THOUGHTS. 

" Go, teach all nations ;" he bears a part of the re- 
sponsibility of the world's conversion, and yet, so 
far from doing any thing himself, he does not even 
know what others are doing in promoting this great 
enterprise. Ask him about missionary stations and 
operations, and he can tell you nothing. He does 
not read about them. I am afraid this professor of 
religion does not love "the gates of Zion more than 
all the dwellings of Jacob." Ah, he forgets thee, 
Jerusalem. 

But I must not fail to ask if this person takes a 
secular newspaper. 0, certainly he does. He must 
know what is going on in the world ; and how else 
is he to know it ? It is pretty clear, then, that he 
takes a deeper interest in the world than he does in 
the church ; and this being the case, it is not difficult 
to say where his heart is. He pays perhaps eight 
or ten dollars for a secular paper — a paper that tells 
him about the world ; but for one that records Zion's 
conflicts and victories, he is unwilling to pay two 
or three. How can a professor of religion answer 
for this discrimination in favor of the world ; how 
defend himself against the charge it involves ? He 
cannot do it ; and he had better not try, but go or 
write immediately and subscribe for some good re- 
ligious paper ; and to be certain of paying for it, let 
him pay in advance. There is a satisfaction when 
one is reading an interesting paper, to reflect that 
it is paid for. 



DETACHED THOUGHTS. 97 

But perhaps you take a paper, and are in arrears 
for it. Now, suppose you were the publisher, and 
the publisher was one of your subscribers, and he 
was in arrears to you, what would you think he 
ought to do in that case ? I just ask the question. 
I don't care about an answer. 



18. DETACHED THOUaHTS. 

It is not every broken heart which constitutes the 
sacrifice of God. It depends on what has broken 
it — whether the experience of misfortune, or the 
sense of sin — the sorrow of the world, or the sorrow 
of God. Both break the heart, but it is a different 
fracture in one case from what it is in the other. 
God values the latter; and hearts so broken he 
mends and makes whole. 

Some sinners repent with an unbroken heart. 
They are scn-ry, and yet go on, as did Pilate and 
Herod. 

A sinner must come to himself, as did the prodigal, 
before ever he will come to Christ. 

The consummation of madness is to do what, at 
the time of doing it, we intend to be afterwards sorry 
for ; the deliberate and intentional making of work 
for repentance. 

When a Christian backslides, it is as if the prod- 

Prac, Thouglits. 7 



98 PKACTICAL THOUGHTS. 

igal son had reacted his folly, and left his father's 
house a second time. 

There is a mighty difference between feeling, "I 
have done wrong," and feeling, " I have simied 
against the Lord." * 

Some sinners lay down their burden elsewhere 
than at the feet of Jesus. 

Ministers should aim in preaching to puncture the 
heart, rather than tickle the ear. 

He who waits for repentance, waits for what 
cannot be had so long as it is waited for. It is ab- 
surd for a man to wait for that which he has him- 
self to do. 

Human friends can weep with us when we weep, 
but Jesus is a friend who, when he has wept with 
us, can wipe away all our tears. And when the 
vale of tears terminates in the valley of the shad- 
ow of death, and other friends are compelled to re- 
tire and leave us to go alone, Jesus is the friend 
who can and will enter and go all the way through 
with us. 

It is better for us that Christ should be in heav- 
en than on earth. We need him more there than 
here. We want an advocate at court. 

When a family party are going home, it is 
common for one to go before to make all ready 
for the rest, and to welcome them. *'I go to 
prepare a place for you," says Christ to his dis- 
ciples. 



DETACHED THOUGHTS. 99 

Procrastination has been called a thief — the thief 
of time. I wish it were no worse than a thief It 
is a murderer ; and that which it kills is not time 
merely, but the immortal soul. 

Surely the subject of religion must be the most 
important of all subjects, since it is presently to be- 
come, and ever after to continue to be, the only and 
all-absorbing subject. 

The obstacle in the way of the sinner's conver- 
sion possesses all the force and invincihleness of an 
inability, with all the freeness and criminality of 
an indisposition. 

In vain will sinners call upon the rocks and 
mountains to hide them. Nature will not interpose 
to screen the enemies of her God. 

What strange servants some Christians are — al- 
ways at work for themselves, and never doing any 
thing for him whom they call their Master. And 
what subjects — ever desiring to take the reins of 
government into their own hands. 

It is one of the worst of errors, that there is an- 
other path of safety besides that of duty. 

The man who lives in vain, lives worse than in 
vain. He who lives to no purpose, lives to a bad 
purpose. 

The danger of the impenitent is regularly and 
rapidly increasing, like his who is in the midst of 
a burning building, or under the power of a fatal 
disease. 



100 PRACTICAL THOUGHTS. 

How many indulge a hope which they dare not 
examine I 

If the mere delay of hope, hope deferred, makes 
the heart sick, what will the death of hope, its final 
and total disappointment, despair, do to it? 

The brightest blaze of intelligence is of incal- 
culably less value than the smallest sjoark of char- 
ity. 

The sublimest thoughts are conceived by the in- 
tellect when it is excited by pious emotion. 

There are many shining lights, which are not 
also burning lights. 

Those may hope to be saved at the eleventh hour 
who, when called at that hour, can plead that it is 
their first call ; who can say, w^hen asked why they 
stand idle, "Because no man hath hired us." 

Some never begin to pray till God has ceased to 
hear. 

The Christian's feeling himself weak, makes him 
strong. 

Genuine benevolence is not stationary, but peri- 
patetic. It goeth about doing good. 

Preparation for meeting God ought to be made 
first, not only because it is most important, but be- 
cause it may be needed first. We may want nothing 
so much as religion. It is the only thing that is 
necessary, certainly, exceedingly, iridisjpensably^ and 
immediately. 

Some things, which could not otherwise be read 



THE LATE MR. WIRT. 101 

in the book of nature, are legible enough in it when 
the lamp of revelation is held up to it. 

It is easier to do a great deal of mischief than to 
accomplish a little good. 

No man will ever fully find out what he is by a 
mere survey of himself. He must explore, if he 
would know himself 

When a man wants nothing, he asks for every 
thing. 



19. THE LATE MR. WIRT. 

The distinguished man whose name introduces 
this article, and who for so long a time filled so large 
a place in the public eye and mind, has passed away 
from the admiring view of mortals. We shall never 
again behold on earth his noble figure, but his mem- 
ory shall long, long be cherished in the choicest 
place of the heart. His history in part belongs to 
the nation. Let others, more competent to the task, 
write that, while I make a brief record of that por- 
tion of his earthly story which connects him with 
the church. Few names have ever been written on 
earth in larger and more brilliant letters; but his 
name was written also in heaven — he had a record 
on high. Mr. Wirt was a Christian. He aspired 
to that "highest style" of humanity, and by divine 
grace he reached it. 



102 PRACTICAL THOUGHTS. 

The writer of this was for many years familiar 
with the religious history of Mr. Wirt. From the 
first of his acquaintance Avith him, he always found 
him disposed to listen and learn on the subject of 
religion, even from those who were very far infe- 
rior to him in intellect and general information. I 
never knew a man more open, candid, docile, than 
he ; and yet, for every thing which he admitted, he 
required a reason. His faith was implicit towards 
God, when he had ascertained that it was to God he 
was listening ; but his understanding refused to bow 
to man. There was a time when, it is believed, he 
had doubts in regard to the truth of the Christian 
religion ; but, inquiring and examining, his doubts 
departed, and his mind rested in the confident be- 
lief, for which he was ever ready to render a rea- 
son, that God had made a revelation to man, and 
that the Bible contains that revelation. Perhaps 
this work of conviction was not fully wrought in 
him until some years ago, when, with the greatest 
satisfaction and profit, as he has often said to the 
writer, he read ''Home's Introduction to the Criti- 
cal Study of the Holy Scriptures," a work which 
many have read at his recommendation, and with 
like results. 

But Mr. Wirt was not satisfied while the faith of 
Christianity had possession of his intellect alone. 
He was aware that it equally deserved a place in 
his afiections ; and having long yielded to Christ the 



THE LATE MR. WIRT. 103 

homage of his understanding, he at length opened 
to him that other department of the man, and re- 
ceived him into his heart. 

It was in the summer of 1831, that on a profes- 
sion of faith and repentance, he became connected 
with the First Presbyterian church of Baltimore, 
of which he remained a consistent and exemplary 
member until his death. 

Shortly after his union to the church, the writer 
of this received from him a letter, from which he 
thinks it will be gratifying to the Christian public 
that he should make the following extracts. They 
show, among other things, what views this great 
man had been taught by the Spirit of God to enter- 
tain of the human character and heart. He writes 
from the Sweet Springs of Virginia. 

"My mind has been too much occupied by the 
petty every-day cares of a residence at a public wa- 
tering-place, or travelling and tossing over rough 
roads, for that continuous and systematic medita- 
tion and cultivation of religious feelings which I 
know .to be my duty, and which I think I should 
find a delightful duty ; but perhaps I deceive myself 
in this, for I have no faith in the fair dealing of this 
heart of mine with myself I feel the want of that 
supreme love of my God and Saviour for which I 
pray. I feel the want of that warming, purifying, 
elevating love, that sanctifying and cheering spirit 
which supports the Christian in his warfare with 



104 PRACTICAL THOUGHTS. 

the world, the flesh, and the great enemy of our 
souls. Yet let me not be ungrateful. I have some 
sweet moments. My affections do sometimes take 
wing among these great works of God that surround 
me, and rise to their Creator; and I think with 
gratitude on that transcendently greater work of 
his, the salvation of a guilty and fallen world by 
the death and mediation of his only Son. But 
indeed I am an exceedingly poor and weak Chris- 
tian; and I often fear, too often for my peace, that 
there is at least nothing of the vitality of religion 
about me, and that I may have mistaken the burning 
of some of those vapors that fume from an ardent 
imagination, for that strong, steady, and ever-during 
fire which animates the Christian, and bears him 
triumphant on his course. God only knows how 
this matter is. I think I am endeavoring to be sin- 
cere. But I may be mistaken, and it may turn out 
at last to be only one of those stratagems which the 
arch-enemy plays off upon us to our ruin. But even 
this apprehension again may be one of his stratagems 
to make me despond, and thus defeat the operation 
of the Spirit. 

" Alas, with how many enemies are we beset — 
treachery within and without. Nothing remains 
for us but to watch and to pray, lest we enter into 
temptation. God forbid that the public profession 
which I have made of religion should redound to 
the dishonor of his cause. It is the fear of this 



" 



THE LATE MR. WIRT. 105 

which has so long held me back, and not the fear 
of man. I am grieved to learn that my having gone 
to the Lord's table has got into the papers. It is no 
fit subject for a paper. Of what consequence is it to 
the cause of Christ that such a poor reptile as my- 
self should have acknowledged him before other 
worms of the dust like myself. I feel humbled and 
startled at such an annunciation. It Avill call the 
eyes of a hypercritical and malignant world upon 
me, and, I fear, tend more to tarnish than to advance 
the cause." 

In another part of the letter, he writes, *'I long 
for more fervor in prayer ; for more of the love and 
Spirit of God shed abroad in my heart ; for more 
of his presence throughout the day ; for a firmer 
anchorage in Christ, to keep this heart of mine and 
its affections from tossing to and fro on the waves of 
this world and the things of time and sense ; for a 
brighter and a stronger faith, and some assurance of 
my Saviour's acceptance and love. I feel as if he 
could not love me ; that I am utterly unworthy of 
his love ; that I have not one loveable point or qual- 
ity about me; but that, on the contrary, he must 
still regard me as an alien to his kingdom and a 
stranger to his love. But, with the blessing of God, 
I will persevere in seeking him, relying on his 
promise, that if I come to him, he will in no Avise 
cast me off." 

It may not be iminteresting to mention, that the 



106 PRACTICAL THOUGHTS. 

favorite religious authors of Mr. Wirt were Watts 
and Jay. More recently, he became acc^aainted with 
the writings of Flavel; and the subject of the last 
conversation I had with him was Flavel's "Saint 
Indeed," which he had just been reading with great 
interest. 



30. TRAVELLINa ON THE SABBATH. 

How few men act from principle. How few have 
any rule by which they uniformly regulate their 
conduct. Fewer still act from Christian principle — 
regard a rule derived from revelation. It makes 
my very heart bleed to think how few, even of civil- 
ized and evangelized men, regard divine authority. 
And yet it is the disregard of this which constitutes 
the sinner and the rebel. Some disregard one 
expression of it, and some another. He who, what- 
ever respect he may profess for God, 'practically 
disregards any expression of divine authority, is a 
revolter, a rebel — is up in heart, if not in arms, 
against God — is engaged in a controversy with 
Jehovah. 

What has led me into this train of reflection, is the 
general disregard that I observe with respect to the 
sanctification of the Sabbath. He who made us, and 
who by constantly preserving us when otherwise we 
should relapse into non-existence, may be said to be 



SABBATH TRAVELLING. 107 

continually renewing the creation of us, and has 
beyond all question a right to control us, did long 
ago, from Sinai, distinctly express his will with 
regard to the manner in which the seventh portion 
of time should be spent, and how it should be dis- 
tinguished from the other six portions. He remind- 
ed his creatures of it, and declared it to be his will 
that it should be kept holy ; that six days we should 
labor, and therein do all our work, leaving none of 
it to be done on the seventh, because the seventh is 
the Sabbath of the Lord our God. It is his rest, 
and therefore should be ours also. In it he has 
signified it to be his will that we should not do any 
work; neither we, nor those who are subject to us as 
children or as servants, nor even those transiently 
domesticated with us, the strangers within our gates. 
Nor should man alone rest, but the heast also. Then 
he condescends to give a reason for this enactment, 
in which all mankind, whenever and wherever they 
live, are equally interested — a reason which was 
valid from the creation of the world, and will hold 
good as long as the world lasts; "for in six days 
the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all 
that in them is, and rested the seventh day ; ivhere- 
fo7'e the Lord blessed the Sabbath-day, and hal- 
lowed it." 

Now, God has never revoked this expression of 
his will. He has never repealed this law. If he has, 
when did he it, and where is the record of its repeal ? 



108 PRACTICAL THOUGHTS. 

He has not taken off the blessing which he laid on 
the Sabbath. He has not obliterated the distinction 
which he put on the seventh portion of time. He 
has not said, *'You need no longer remember the 
Sabbath to keep it holy ; seven days you may labor , 
my example of six days of work, followed by one of 
cessation and rest, you may now cease to imitate. ' 
He has not said any thing like it. The law is in 
force therefore even until now. 

Well, here is the law of God with the reason oj 
it. Now^ for the practice of men. How poorly they 
compare. There are indeed few who do not remem 
ber the Sabbath-day, and in some manner distinguish 
it from the other days of the week. But the law is, 
that they should remember it to keep it holy — that 
they should distinguish it by hallowing it as a day 
of rest. This they do not. They keep it no more 
holy than any other day, though they do differently 
on that day from what they do on others. They do 
not the same w^ork on that day which they do on 
the other days, but they do ^ome work. Such as 
necessity requires, and such as mercy dictates, they 
may do. The law of nature teaches that, and the 
example of the Lord of the Sabbath sanctions and 
confirms the lesson. But they do other work than 
such as these call them to. The Sabbath is with 
them as secular a day as any other, though the man- 
ner of their worldliness on that day may be unlike 
what it is on the other days. What is more purely 



SABBATH TRAVELLING. 109 

secular than visiting and travelling, yet what more 
common on the day which the Lord has blessed and 
hallowed? These, I know, are not considered as 
falling under the denomination of work, but they do 
fall under it. They are as certainly included among 
the things forbidden to be done on the Sabbath, as 
are ploughing and sowing. The former are no more 
sacred, no less secular, than are the latter. 

I have been struck with the indisci'iminate man- 
ner in which travellers use the seven days of the 
week. One would suppose that the law had made 
an exception in favor of travelling — forbidding every 
other species of secular employment on the day of 
rest, but allowing men to journey on it. They that 
would not do any other labor on the Sabbath, will 
nevertheless without compunction travel on that 
day. The farmer who would not toil in his field, 
the merchant who would not sell an article out of 
his store, the mechanic who would not labor at his 
trade, and the mistress of the family who scrupu- 
lously avoids certain household occupations on the 
Sabbath, will yet, all of them, without any relent- 
ings, travel on the Sabbath, and that whether the 
object of their journey be business or pleasure; it 
makes no diflerence. They would not on the Sab- 
bath do other work appropriate to the six days. 
That would shock them. But to commence, con- 
tinue, or finish a journey on the Sabbath, oiTends 
not their consciences in the least. I am acquainted 



110 PRACTICAL THOUGHTS. 

with many persons who would not for the world 
travel to a place on Saturday, accomplish their 
business, the object of their journey, on Sunday, and 
return on Monday ; but these same persons will, for 
a very little of the world, and without any hesita- 
tion, go to the place on Friday, do their business on 
Saturday, and return on Sunday. Now, I would do 
the one just as soon as I would the other, and 
should consider that I desecrated the Sabbath by 
travelling to or from the place of business on it, 
just as much as by accomplishing the object of the 
journey on it. 

I would ask the candid traveller, if anything can 
secularize the Sabbath more completely, if any thing 
can more effectually nullify it, than ordinary travel- 
ling ? If a man may lawfully travel on the Sabbath, 
except in a case of stern necessity, such as would 
justify any species of work, I know not what he may 
not lawfully do on that day. What is more absurd 
than that it should be lawful and proper \o journey 
on the day set apart and sanctified for restl Surely, 
journeying does not comport well with rest. But 
they say that travelling is not work, and therefore 
not included in the prohibition. I deny the fact. It 
is often hard and wearisome work. And w^hat if it 
be not work to the passenger, is it not work to those 
who are employed in conveying him ? If he does not 
labor, yet others must labor in order to enable him 
to travel ; and is he not equally responsible for the 



SABBATH TRAVELLING. HI 

work which he renders necessary on the Sabhath, 
as for that which he does with his own hands ? But 
what if no human being is employed to forward him 
on his journey, he deprives the beast of his day of 
rest. And is it nothing to withhold from the poor 
animal the privilege of the Sabbath — to compel him 
to work on the day on which God has directed that 
he should be permitted to rest ? 

According to this theory, that it is lawful to 
journey on the Sabbath, a man may so arrange it 
as never to be under obligation to keep a Sabbath. 
He has only to set apart that day of the week for 
travelling; he has only to keep in motion on the 
day of rest ; that is all. Moreover, he who gets 
his living by travelling, or by the journeying of 
others, has, on this supposition, a manifest advan- 
tage, if such it may be called, over his neighbors. 
He has seven days for profit, while they have only 
six. The day-laborer and the poor mechanic may 
not use the seventh day as they do the other 
days of the week. They must make a distinction 
between them. But those who travel for their 
pleasure, or whose business calls them abroad, and 
those who accommodate them with conveyances, 
may use the seven days indiscriminately. Is this 
equal ? 

I think it must be evident to every unpreju- 
diced mind, that to travel on the Sabbath is to use 
it as any other day. It is to make no disitiuction 



112 PRACTICAL THOUG.HTS. 

between it and Monday or Saturday. It disregards 
the peculiarity of the day altogether. Yet I sup- 
pose there is as much journeying on the Sabbath 
as there is on any other day of the week. With very 
few exceptions, the steamboats ply and the stages 
run as usual ; and both, I am informed, are as full, 
if not more crowded on the Sabbath than on any 
other day ; and private carriages are as numerous 
on the great thoroughfares, and in the vicinity of 
cities more so, on the Sabbath. And tiie registers 
of the watering-places show as many arrivals and 
departures on Sunday as on Monday. Yes, men 
make as free with the Lord's day as they do with 
their own days. So little regard is paid to divine 
authority. So little do men care for God. And, they 
tell me, all sorts of men travel on the Sabbath — 
even many professors of religion. That I would 
suppose. I never heard of any thing so bad that 
some professor of religion had not done it. It was 
one of the professors of religion who bartered away 
and betrayed our blessed Lord and Saviour. And 
some ministers of the gospel, I am told, do the work 
of travelling on the Sabbath. Now w^e have some 
ministers who have farms. I suppose it would be 
accounted dreadful, should they plough or reap on 
the Sabbath. Yet these might plough as innocently 
as those may travel. But these breakers of the Sab- 
bath, and indeed almost all of this class of trans- 
gressors are the readiest persons I ever met with at 



SABBATH TRAVELLI^'G. 113 

making excuses for their conduct. I propose in my 
next to consider some of their apologies. They will 
be found very curious. 



31. APOLOGIES FOR TRAVELLING- ON THE SABBATH. 

Some of those who do the wm'k of journeying on 
the Sabbath, do not condescend to make any apol- 
ogy for it. They care neither for the day, nor for 
Him who hallowed it. With these we have noth- 
ing to do. Our business is with those who, admit- 
ting the general obligation of the Sabbath, and 
knov/ing or suspecting Sunday travelling to be a 
sin, offer apologies which they hope may justify the 
act in their case, or else go far towards extenuating 
the criminality of it. I propose to submit to the 
judgment of my readers some of the eoocuses for this 
sin, as I cannot help calling the breach of the 
fourth commandment, which from time to time I 
have heard alleged. 

I would premise that I know of no sin which 
men are so sorry for before it is done, and so ready 
to apologize for afterwards. I cannot tell how 
many persons, about to travel on the Sabbath, 
have answered me that they were very sorry to do 
it ; and yet they have immediately gone and done 
it. They have repented and then sinned — just like 

Prac. Thoughts. 8 



114 



PRACTICAL THOUGHTS. 



Herod, who was sorry to put John the Baptist to 
death, and then immediately sent an executioner 
to bring his head. It does not diminish the crimi- 
nality of an act that it is perpetrated with some 
degree of regret — and yet the presence of such a 
regret is considered by many as quite a tolerable 
excuse. 

One gentleman who was sorry to travel on the 
Sabbath, added, I recollect, that it was against his 
principles to make such a use of the day. I won- 
dered then that he should do it — ^that he should 
deliberately practise in opposition to his principles. 
But I was still more surprised that he should think 
to excuse his practice by alleging its contrariety to 
his principles. What are principles for but to reg- 
ulate practice ; and if they have not fixedness and 
force enougii for this, of what use are they? A 
man's principles may as well be in favor of Sab- 
bath-breaking as his practice ; and certainly it con- 
stitutes a better apology for a practice, that it is in 
conformity to one's principles, than that it is at 
variance with them. 

Another gave pretty much the same reason for 
his conduct in different words : *' It is not my hab- 
it,'' said he, **to travel on the Sabbath." It was 
only his act. He did not uniformly do it. He only 
occasionally did it. A man must be at a loss for 
reasons who alleges an apology for travelling one 
Sabbath, that he does not travel other Sabbaths 



SABBATH TRAVELLING. 115 

The habit of obedience forms no excuse for the act 
of disobedience. 

An intelligent lady, who was intending to travel 
on the Sabbath, volunteered this exculpation of her- 
self She said she had travelled one Sabbath al- 
ready since she left home, and she supposed it was 
no worse to travel on another. What then? are 
not two sins worse than one ? 

Another, and she was a lady too, said she could 
read good books by the way: "And you know," 
said she, "that we can have as good thoughts in 
one place as in another." I assented, but could 
not help thinking that the persons employed in 
conveying her might not find their situation as 
favorable to devout reading and meditation. This, 
I suppose, did not occur to her. 

Another person said that he would never com- 
mence a journey on the Sabbath; but when once 
set out, he could see no harm in proceeding. But 
I, for my part, could not see the mighty difference 
between setting out on the Sabbath, and going on 
on the Sabbath. My perceptions were so obtuse 
that I could not discern the one to be travelling, 
and the other to be equivalent to rest. 

I heard, among other excuses, this : Sunday was 
the only day of the week on which the stage run to 
the place to which the person wished to go, and 
therefore he was compelled to travel on Sunday. 
Compelled ? Why go to the place at all ? Why 



116 PRACTICAL THOUGHTS. 

not procure a private conveyance on another day 
of the week ? What if it should be more expen- 
sive ? Doing right pays so well, that one can afford 
to be at some expense to do it. 

Again, I was frequently met with this apology 
for journeying on the Sabbath : " The stage was 
going on, and if I had laid by on the Sabbath, I 
should have lost my seat, and might have had to 
wait on the road perhaps for a whole week, before 
I could regain it." This apology satisfied many. 
They thought it quite reasonable that the person 
should proceed under those circumstances. But it 
did not satisfy me. It occurred to me, that if he 
had honored the Sabbath, and committed his way 
to the Lord, he might not have been detained on 
the road beyond the day of rest. But what if he 
had been ? are we under no obligation to obey a 
command of Grod, if we foresee that obedience to it 
may be attended with some inconvenience ? Better 
the detention of many days than the transgression 
of a precept of the decalogue. 

One person told me that he meant to start very 
early in the morning, for he wished to occupy as 
little of the Sabbath in travelling as possible. 
Another proposed to lie by all the middle of the 
day, and proceed in the evening, and he was sure 
theie could be no harm in that. Ah, thought I, 
and has not Sunday a morning and an evening ap- 
propriate to itself as well as any other day of the 



SABBATH TRAVELLING. 117 

week ? Is the morning of Sunday all one with Sat- 
urday, and the evening no mere sacred than Mon- 
day ? Did God hallow only the middle of the day ? 
And is the day of rest shorter by several hours than 
any other day ? I never could see how one part of 
the Sabbath should be entitled to more religious 
respect than another part. It seems to me a man 
may as properly travel on the noon of the Sabbath, 
as in the morning or evening. 

One person was very particular to tell me what 
he meant to do after he had travelled a part of the 
Lord's day. He expected, by about ten or eleven 
o'clock, to come across a church, and he intended 
to go in and worship. That, he supposed, would set 
all right again. 

Another, a grave-looking personage, was travel- 
ling on the Sabbath to reach an ecclesiastical meet- 
ing in season. Another, in order to fulfil an ap- 
pointment he had made to preach. These were 
ministers. They pleaded the necessity of the case ; 
but I could see no necessity in it. I thought the 
necessity of keeping God's commandments a much 
clearer and stronger case of necessity. The busi- 
ness of the meeting could go on without that clergy- 
man, or it might have been deferred a day in wait- 
ing for him, or he might have left home a day 
earlier. The appointment to preach should not 
have been made ; or, if made, should have been 
broken. 



118 PRACTICAL THOUGHTS. 

There was one apologist who had not heard from 
home for a good while, and he was anxious to learn 
ahout his family. Something in their circumstances 
might require his presence. I could not sustain even 
that apolog}% for I thought the Lord could take care 
of his family without him as well as with him, and 
I did not believe they would be likely to suffer by 
his resting on the Sabbath out of respect to God's 
commandment, and spending the day in imploring 
the divine blessing on them. 

Another apologist chanced to reach on Saturday 
night an indifferent public-house. He pleaded, 
therefore, that it was necessary for him to proceed 
on the next day until he should arrive at better 
accommodations. But I could not help thinking 
that his being comfortably accommodated was not, 
on the whole, so important as obedience to the 
decalogue. 

One person thought he asked an unanswerable 
question, when he begged to know why it w^as not 
as well to be on the road, as to be lying by at a 
country tavern. It occurred to me, that if his 
horses had possessed the faculty of Balaam's beast, 
they could have readily told him the difftrence, 
and w^hy the latter part of the alternative was 
preferable. 

There was still another person who was sure his 
excuse would be sustained. He was one of a party 
who were determined to proceed on the Sabbath in 



SABBATH TRAVELLING. 119 

spite of his reluctance, and he had no choice hut to 
go on with them. Ah, had he no choice ? Would 
they have forced him to go on ? Could he not have 
separated from such a party; or might he not, if 
he had been determined, have prevailed on them 
to rest on the Lord's day? Suppose he had said 
mildly, yet firmly, "My conscience forbids me to 
journey on the Sabbath. You can go, but you must 
leave me. I am sorry to interfere with your wishes, 
but I cannot offend God." Is it not ten to one such 
a remonstrance would have been successful ? I 
cannot help suspecting that the person was willing 
to be compelled in this case. 

But many said that this strict keeping of the 
Sabbath was an old puritanical notion, and this 
seemed to ease their consciences somewhat. I re- 
marked that I thought it older than puritanism. A 
Sinaitical notion I judged it to be, rather than 
puritanical. 

Many Sunday travellers I met with begged me 
not tell their pious relatives that they had travelled 
on the Sabbath. They thought, if these knew it, 
they would not think so well of them, and they 
would be likely to hear of it again. No one asked 
me not to tell God. They did not seem to care how 
it affected them in his estimation. It never occurred 
to them that they might hear from the Lord of the 
Sabbath on the subject. 

I do not know any purpose which such apologies 



120 i'RACTICAL THOUGHTS. 

for Sabbath -"breaking serve, since they satisfy neither 
God nor his people, but one, and that is not a very 
valuable one. They serve only, as far as I can see, 
to delude those who offer them. 

I love to be fair. I have been objecting lately 
against the Catholics, that they reduce the number 
of the commandments to nine, I here record my 
acknowledgment that some of us Protestants have 
really but nine. The Catholics omit the second; 
some of our Protestants, the fourth. 



32. "I HAVE DONE aiVINa." 

A gentleman of high respectability, and a mem- 
ber of the church, made this remark the other day, 
when informed that an application was about to be 
made to him in behalf of some charitable object. " I 
have done giving," said he. When I heard of his 
remark it awakened in my mind a train of reflec- 
tion, which I have thought it might not be amiss to 
communicate. 

"Done giving I" Has he indeed? Why, has he 
given all ? Has he nothing left to give ? Has 
this disciple done what his Master did? Was he 
rich, and has he become poor for the sake of others, 
that they, through his poverty, might be rich ? 
no ; he is rich still. He has the greatest abundance ; 



«'I HAVE DONE GIVING." 121 

more than enough to support him in elegance, and 
to enable him to leave an ample inheritance to his 
children. What if he has a great deal? He has 
not only not impoverished himself, but is probably 
richer now, through the favor of Providence, than 
he would have been had he never given any thing. 
Now if, by honoring the Lord with his substance, 
his barns, instead of being emptied, have been filled 
with plenty, he had better continue this mode of 
honoring him. He should rather increase than 
arrest his liberality. 

''Done giving!" Why? Is there no more need 
of giving ? Is every want abundantly supplied ? Is 
the whole population of our country furnished with 
the means of grace? Is the world evangelized? 
Have missionaries visited every shore ? Is the Bible 
translated into every language and distributed in 
every land, a copy in every family, and every mem- 
ber of every family taught to read it? Are the 
accommodations for widows and orphans as ample 
as they should be ? Is there a house of refuge for 
every class of the human family that needs one ; or 
have the poor ceased from the land ? no ; there 
are no such good reasons as these for ceasing to give. 
Why, then, has he done giving? Is it because 
others do not give as they ought ? But what is that 
to him? Will he make the practice of others his 
rule of conduct, rather than the precept of Jesus 
Christ? If others do not give, so much the more 



122 PRACTICAL THOUGHTS. 

should he. Will he add another name to the list of 
niggards ? 

Does he feel worse for having given away so 
much ? Has it made him unhappy ? Is his expe- 
rience different from that of the Lord Jesus, who 
said, "It is more blessed to give than to receive?" 

Has he who thinks he will give no more, been 
led to that conclusion by having found that what 
has been given hitherto has done no good ? And is 
it so, that no good has been done by all the Bibles 
published, and all the tracts distributed, and all the 
missionaries sent abroad into our own land and into 
the world; and all the schools established, and all 
the children taught to read, and all the civilization 
introduced, and all the asylums opened, and all the 
poverty relieved ? Has no good been done ? Good, 
great good has been done by what has been given ; 
but still more will be done by what shall be given 
hereafter. Bibles can now be printed at a cheaper 
rate than heretofore, and the conductors of our 
charitable operations have learned, by experience, 
that economy which can be learned in no other 
way. And yet, at this time, when a dollar goes so 
far in doing good, here is a man who says, "I have 
done giving I" If I had his ear for a moment, I 
would ask him if he has done receivi?zg — if God 
has done giving to him. I would ask him, more- 
over, if he has done sjjending, or done hoarding, or 
done wasting. Now, if he has not, he surely should 



**I HAVE DONE GIVING." 123 

not stop giving. "WTieii he ceases to waste, to hoard, 
and to spend, except for the merest necessaries, then 
he may stop giving, but never till then. 

" Done giving ;" that is, done lending to the Lord. 
Done sowing and watering. Done offering the sac- 
rifices with which God is well pleased. Done making 
the widow's heart leap for joy, and bringing on him- 
self the blessing of them that were ready to perish. 
Well, I am sorry — sorry for the sake of the poor 
and the sick and the orphan and the ignorant and 
the heathen. But no less sorry am I for the man's 
own sake. Poor man — poor with all his affluence ; 
for there is really no one more poor than he who, 
with the ability to give, has not the inclination. 
He has it in his power to give, but not in his 
heart. He is enriched with abundance, but not 
with liberality. 

"Done giving;" well, then, if he will not give 
his money, he must keep it. And yet, how short 
the time he can keep it ! Had he not better freely 
give away some of it, than to wait for it all to be 
torn from him? The thought that he has given, 
will be at least as agreeable a meditation in his 
dying moments, as the reflection that he spent, or 
that he laid up. 

I hope that gentleman who said, "I have done 
giving," will recall his resolution, and taking re- 
venge on himself for having made it, give more 
liberally than ever. 



124 PRACTICAL THOUGHTS. 

23. "I WILL G-IVE LIBERALLY.'' 

It is a good resolution, founded on good reasons, 
some of which I will state, in the hope that others 
may be induced to come to a similar determina- 
tion. 

I will give liberally, for the following reasons, 
namely, 

1. Because the objects for which I am called 
upon to give are great and noble. It is the cause 
of letters and religion, of man and God, for which 
my donations are wanted. The interests of time 
and eternity both are involved in it. Now, it is a 
shame to give calculatingly and sparingly to such a 
cause, and for such objects. If one gives at all, he 
should give liberally. Nothing can justify a per- 
son's putting in only two mites, but its being all 
his living. 

2. Liberal donations are needed. The cause not 
only deserves them, but requires them. It takes a 
great deal to keep the present operations a going; 
and we must every year extend the works. Do you 
not know that we have the w^orld to go over, and the 
millennium is just at hand ? Look, the morning of 
that day is getting bright. We can almost see the 
sun peering above the horizon. 

3. My means either enable me now to give lib- 
erally, or, by economy and self-denial, may be so 
increased as to enable me to give liberally. I will 



"I WILL GIVE LIBERALLY." 125 

give liberally so long as I do not resort to economy 
and self-denial ; and if I do resort to them, that will 
enable me to give liberally. 

4. I will give liberally, because I have received 
liberally. God has given liberally. He has not 
only filled my cup, but made it run over. He has 
given me "good measure, pressed down, and shaken 
together, and running over." I will imitate him in 
my gifts to others, and especially in my donations 
to his cause. 

5. I am liberal in my expenditures, and therefore 
I will be in my donations. "Why should I spend 
much, and give little ? It is not because spending 
is more blessed. No ; it is giving that is said to be 
more blessed. The conduct of a man whose ex- 
penditures are large and his donations small, is lit- 
erally monstrous. I will not act so out of all pro- 
portion. If I must retrench, I will retrench from 
ray expenditures, and not from my benefactions. 

6. The time for giving is short, and therefore I 
will give liberally while I have the opportunity of 
giving at all. Soon I shall be compelled to have 
done giving. 

7. A blessing is promised to liberal giving, and 
I want it. The liberal soul shall be made fat. 
Therefore I will be liberal. "And he that water- 
eth, shall be watered also himself" Then I will 
water. " There is that scattereth, and yet increas- 
eth." Therefore I will scatter, and not sparingly, 



126 PRACTICAL THOUGHTS. 

but bountifully; for *'he which soweth sparingly 
shall reap also sparingly; and he which soweth 
bountifully shall reap also bountifully." 

8. I will give liberally, because it is not a clear 
gift ; it is a loan. " He that has pity upon the poor, 
lendeth unto the Lord " — lendeth to the best of pay- 
masters, on the best security, and at the highest rate 
of interest ; for he renders double, aye, a hundred 
fold in this life, to say nothing of the life to come. 
I will lend him liberally. 

9. I will give liberally, because the times are hard 
where the gospel is not. 

10. I will give liberally, because there are many 
who would, but cannot ; and many that can, but 
will not. It is so much the more necessary there- 
fore that they should who are both able and inclined. 
I used to say, ''I will not give liberally, because 
others do not. There is a richer man than I am, 
who does not give so much as I do." But now, 
from the same premises, I draw the opposite con- 
clusion. Because others do not give liberally, I 
will. 

11. I have sometimes tried giving liberally, and 
I do not believe I have ever lost any thing by it. I 
have seen others try it, and they did not seem to lose 
any thing by it ; and on the whole, I think a man 
is in no great danger of losing who puts liberally 
into the treasury of the Lord and possessor of all 
things and the giver of every good and perfect gift 



*« I WILL GIVE LIBERALLY." 127 

12. And finally, when I ask myself if I shall 
e\er be sorry for giving liberally, I hear from within 
a prompt and most decided negative, "No, never." 

Wherefore I conclude that I will give liberally. 
It is a good resolution, I am certain ; and now I 
will take care that I do not spoil it all by putting 
an illiberal construction on liberally. I will under- 
stand it as meaning freely, cheerfully, largely, 
whether the lexicographers say so or not ; or, in 
other words, as meaning ivhat I ought to give, and 
a little more. I will tell you how I will do. An 
object being presented to me, when I have ascer- 
tained -wYidil justice requires me to give, I will add 
something, lest, through insidious selfishness, I may 
have underrated my ability ; and that, if I err, I 
may be sure to err on the right side. Then I will 
add a little to my donation out oi genei'odty. And 
when I have counted out what justice requires, and 
what generosity of her free will offers, then I will 
think of Him who, though he was rich, for our 
sakes became poor, that we, through his poverty, 
might be rich ; and I say not that I will add a little 
more, but, how can I keep back any thing ? 

" Were the whole reahn of nature mine, 
That were a present far too small : 
Love so amazing, so divine, 
Demands my soul, my life, my all.'* 



128 PRACTICAL THOUaHTS. 

34. '-' THE CALLS ARE SO MANY." 

This is one of the most common complaints of 
those who are called upon to contribute to charita- 
ble objects; *'The calls are so many," they say. 
Now, let us inquire into this matter. 

1. Are there really so many? Reckon them up. 
Perhaps they are not, after all, so many as you im- 
agine. Any thing which annoys us at intervals, is 
apt to be considered as coming oftener than it really 
does. When a man has rent to pay, how frequently 
quarter-day seems to come round. But it is not so 
with him who is the receiver. The calls are not, in 
fact, so many as you imagine. I asked a wealthy 
lady once, who thought she gave a great deal away 
in charity, to keep an accurate account for one year 
of all she gave away, particularly to the religious 
charities — which are those that are most complained 
of; and I predicted that she would find, at the close 
of the year, that her donations had been less than she 
imagined. She did so, and at the end of the year 
came to me and said she was perfectly ashamed 
to fmd that she had spent so much and given so 
little. She found that the calls were 7iot *'so very 
many." 

2. If the calls are so many, yet do not make that 
a reason for refusing them all. I fear that some do. 
But surely, that the calls are so many is no reason 
that you should not comply with some of them. It 



*'THE CALLS ARE SO MANY." 129 

is only a reason why you should not comply with 
all. Meet one half of them generously, if you can- 
not meet them all. You acknowledge that there 
ought to be some calls, when you complain that they 
are so many. 

3. If the calls are many, are they more than the 
ivants? Ought they not to be as many? Would 
you have the calls fewer than the wants? That 
would never do ; then some wants would never be 
supplied. Besides, you should consider who makes 
or permits the wants, and therefore the calls, to 
be so many, lest your complaint cast a reflection on 
God. If the calls are so many, too many, and we 
must dispense with some, which shall they be? 
Widows and orphans, and the poor generally, you 
dare not, as you fear God, except from your chari- 
ties. Will you refuse the call of the Bible agent, or 
the tract agent? Will you withhold from foreign 
missions, or from home missions, or from both? 
Or will you say, "We will contribute to send out 
and support missionaries both at home and abroad, 
but we will not aid in their education? Let them 
get that as they can. Let them make their way 
through the academy, the college, and the theologi- 
cal seminary as they can. And let Sunday-schools 
establish and support themselves ; and temperance 
agents see, since they are so much in favor of absti- 
nence, if they cannot get along without the staff of 
life." For my part, 1 do not know what calls to 

Prac. Thoughts. 9 



130 PRACTICAL THOUGHTS. 

except, and therefore I judge the safer way to be to 
receive none. 

4. If the calls are many, the expenditures are 
more ; and we not only spend, but waste, in more 
ways than we give. 

5. If the calls you receive are so many, suppose, 
in order to avoid them, that you make some. Turn 
agent for some society, and you shall see how much 
more pleasant it is to make calls than to receive 
them. We will excuse you from contributing, if you 
will solicit. But that you would not like at all. 
"You cannot bear begging. It is the most unpleas- 
ant thing in the world to apply to people for money." 
Very well ; if you decline this branch of the alter- 
native, then do not complain of the other. If you 
will not make the calls, you must sit still and re- 
ceive them. It is the easier part ; and you ought 
to be good-natured when you receive one of these 
calls — aye, and even grateful to the man who comes 
to you, that he affords you another opportunity of 
offering one of the sacrifices with which God is 
well pleased, without going out of your way to do 
it. Others must go about to do good, but you can 
sit still and do good. 

6. If the calls are so many, this importunity will 
not last long. Not more than seventy or eighty 
years does it ever continue. If it is an annoyance, 
you can bear it a few years. In eternity you will 
never receive these or any other calls. I knew 



"I CAN'T AFFORD IT." 131 

several rich, men whose last calls were made on 
them in 1833. 

Do these calls pester you? They bless others. 
Yonder is a poor woman reading the Bible which 
your money paid for. And there is another w^eep- 
mg over a tract which she owes to your donation. 
And there is a third blessing the good people that 
support domestic missions : and there is a heathen 
mother, who perhaps would have immolated her 
child, if your contribution had not helped to send 
her the gospel. Do you hear that young man? 
How well he preaches. You assisted to educate 
him. Dear friend, do not complain, but welcome 
every call ; treat all the agents with civility, and do 
as much as you any way can for the various benev- 
olent objects; for ''the time is short," and all the 
regret which your liberality will occasion you, I 
will consent to suffer 



35. «I CAN'T AFFORD IT." 

This is another of the common excuses for not 
giving. A person being applied to in behalf of this 
or that good object, says, "I approve the object. It 
ought to be encouraged, and I am sorry I cannot 
aid it. But so it is. The calls on me are so many, 
and my means are so limited, I cannot afford it.'* 
Now, it may be he is mistaken. Perhaps he can 



132 PRACTICAL THOUGHTS. 

afford it. The heart is very deceitful. But admitting 
that he cannot afford it, as is often the case, yet does 
this excuse him? Is the want of ability a sufficient 
apology? By no means. There is another thing to 
be considered — the cause of his inability. IVJiy can 
he not afford it ? We must go back one step, and 
inquire how it comes to pass that he is so destitute of 
means as to be unable to give to this and that good 
object. What if he Jias not the ability, provided he 
77iight have it ? Now, as it regards the cause of the 
inability. 

1. Perhaps he does not ea?'?i as much as he might. 
In that case, his not being able to afford it is no 
excuse. All he has to do is to earn a little more, and 
then he can afford it. Let only his idle hours be 
fewer — let him but w^ork a little longer, or a little 
harder, and there will be no difficulty. And why 
should not a man earn to give, as well as earn to 
eat, drink, and put on ? Are these last more blessed 
than giving ? Why should you not put forth a little 
extra effort, if it be necessary to enable you to pro- 
mote the cause of humanity and religion ? We see 
that this man is the author of his inability, and 
therefore it is no excuse. He could afibrd it, if he 
would but take certain simple and obvious meas- 
ures to do so. 

2. Perhaps the case may be that he does not save 
as much as he might. He is not idle, but he is prod- 
iofal. He earns enough, but he does not econcmi 



«I CAN'T AFFORD IT." 133 

cally use it. jSTow, a penny saved is equal tc a penny 
earned ; and it is all one to the treasury of charity 
whether that which it receives comes of economy 
or of industry. The person of whom I now speak 
earns it, but he does not save it. Hence his inabil- 
ity. His income is more than sufficient for the com- 
fortable subsistence of himself and those dependent 
on him, yet he is so inconsiderate in his expenditures, 
wastes so much, that he has nothing left to give. 
Now, I would ask if it is not worth while to prac- 
tise economy for the sake of being able to exercise 
liberality ; to save for the sake of having something 
to give to the cause of the Lord ? Is it not worth 
all the care which economy requires? 

3. But perhaps I have not suggested the true 
cause of the inability. If, however, the apologist 
will allow me the liberty of a little survey and 
criticism, I think I can ascertain why he cannot 
afford it. And first, I will scan his person. Oh, I see 
why you cannot afford it. You wear your money. 
You have got so much of your earnings or income 
on your person, that it is no wonder that you cannot 
afford to give. Why, there is one article worn over 
the shoulders, that cost one hundred dollars, or 
more. Now, I do not say, take it off; but I do say, 
that while it is on^ you have no right to plead, "I 
cannot afford it," for you wear a proof that you can 
afford it. Next, I will enter the house. The size 
and situation of it is perhaps unnecessarily expen- 



134 PRACTICAL THOUGHTS. 

sive; and then the furniture. Here the wonder 
ceases — the mystery is explained. I see plainly 
enough why you cannot afford it. 

Now, again I say, I am not one of those who 
would have you sell off your furniture and move 
out of the house you occupy, for God has given us 
"richly all things to enjoy;" but while you live in 
the manner you do, pray do not plead that you can- 
not afford it when one asks you to give to the cause 
of some charity. Now the table is set. The service 
is very fine. Distant China has contributed of its 
porcelain, and Potosi of the product of its mines to 
enrich it. What a display of silver. I see why you 
cannot afford it. You have melted the dollars by 
which you could have afforded it, into plate. Now, 
either send that back to the mint again, or else do 
not send away the agent for that Christian institu- 
tion empty-handed. The dinner is spread. Many 
and rich are the dishes. I do not complain. Only 
when you have such a table before you, dare not to 
say that you cannot afford the money which shall 
purchase and send a little of the bread of life to the 
destitute and perishing. Then follows the — ivines, 
I should say. " Well, what is the harm ? Even the 
temperance-pledge excepts wine." Be it so. Only 
do not say again, "I cannot afford it," to him who 
comes to plead before you the cause of the orphan, 
the ignorant, the unevangelized. Or, if you excuse 
yourself, tell the whole truth ; say, " For my wine, I 



*'I CAN'T AFFORD IT." 135 

cannot afford it." There drives up a carriage. It 
is in fine style : one servant on the box, and one 
behind ; a noble span. Yet the gentleman and lady 
who ride in that carriage, when one comes and tells 
them of the poor heathen who are groping their way 
in the dark to eternity, haughtily, perhaps, reply 
that they have nothing to give. no, they cannot 
give, for they must ride in state. But here is another 
who dresses and lives very plainly ; yet he cannot 
afford it. Why, what is the matter? 0, his money 
is in the stocks, and he cannot touch the principal ; 
and there are his children for whom he must make 
a liberal provision. 

Friend, hear me : you ca7Z afford it, if you will. 
If you have not the ability, you can acquire it. You 
can earn more ; or you can save more. You can 
-ypend less. You can afford it out of your furniture, 
your dress, your table, your equipage ; or perhaps 
rver and above it all. You can afford it, and you 
rught to afford it. You must afford it. Come, 
aow, and resolve that you will. Say no more, *' I 
cannot afford it," but, "I will afford it." You can 
afford to indulge yourself when you wish — to take 
your pleasure — to gratify your children. And can 
you not afford to feed the hungry, to clothe the 
naked, and to send the balm of life abroad into a 
diseased and dying world ? It is very strange ! 
Are you a Christian? As for me, "I cannot afford 
•lot to give;'' there is so much gain in giving, so 



l36 PRACTICAL THOUGHTS. 

much loss in not giving, that if I cannot afford any 
thing else, I must afford this. Some say they are 
too poor to give, but I am too poor not to give ; and, 
moreover, I can no longer afford to give so little as 
heretofore I have given. Indeed, I must sow more 
bountifully, for I want to reap also bountifully. 
This parsimony in the use of seed-money, is poor 
policy. 



36. AN EXAMPLE OF LIBERALITY. 

I am going to give an example of liberality. 
But where do you think I am going to take it from, 
and what persons hold up as an example of liber- 
ality? Not Christians — ^though they were, in the 
apostolic age of Christianity, notable examples of 
liberality, many disciples literally doing as did their 
Master, impoverishing themselves for his cause ; 
and though since that time there have been others, 
and are now not a few of a kindred spirit. The 
example I propose to give is taken from the history 
of the Jews. Some will wonder that I go to the 
Jews for an example of liberality. But I wish, for 
my part, that Christians were only as generous as 
the Jews once were, whatever they may be now. 

The case to which I refer is related in ExoduS; 
chapter 35. The tabernacle was to be erected and 
furnished ; and for this purpose various and very 
precious materials were requisite. He who gave 



LIBERALITY. 137 

his people bread and water by miracle, could have 
miraculously furnished all that was necessary for 
the tabernacle, just as he can now convert the hea- 
then without the help of men and means. But he 
did not choose to do it, as now he does not choose to 
save the world without employing human instru- 
mentality. God does not every thing which he is 
able to do. Some people seem to think that they 
are under no obligation to attempt any thing which 
God can do without them. 

The plan adopted for obtaining the materials 
was this : Moses, in a full assembly of the people, 
gave the following notice : " This is the thing 
which the Lord commanded, saying, Take ye from 
among you an offering unto the Lord : whosoever 
is of a willing heart, let him bring it, an offering 
of the Lord ; gold, and silver, and brass," etc. This 
was all the agency that was employed for the col- 
lection of all those costly materials. How in con- 
trast stands this to our necessarily numerous, ex- 
pensive, and laborious agencies. Here was a simple 
notice given — a bare statement made that such and 
such things were wanted. Nor were the people 
called on to give on the spot, or to pledge their do- 
nations. They were not taken unawares, and hur- 
ried into an exercise of liberality. Time was given 
them for consideration. After the notice the con- 
gregation was dismissed. Nor was it made the ab- 
solute duty of the people to give. A command was 



138 PRACTICAL THOUGHTS. 

indeed issued on the subject, but individuals weie 
left free to give or not, as they pleased: "Wlioso- 
ever is of a willing heart, let him bring it." And 
it appears from Exodus 25 : 2, where the subject 
is first introduced, that Moses was not to receive 
any offering that was not given willingly and 
cheerfully : "Of every man that giveth it willing- 
ly with his heart, ye shall take my offering." 

By the way, may not this be a rule which should 
be regarded now — not to receive an offering into 
the Lord's treasury, if there be any evidence of its 
being reluctantly given ? If nothing was to be re- 
ceived for the work of the tabernacle but what w^as 
given with the heart, why should heartless dona- 
tions be accepted for the edification and extension 
of the church ? It has occurred to me, that perhaps 
one reason why the means which our benevolent 
societies employ effect no more — why our Bibles 
and tracts, and the labors of our missionaries, are 
not more extensively blessed, is, that these opera- 
tions are not sustained and carried on by purely 
free-will offerings. A great deal that goes to sus- 
tain them is grudgingly given. I know it may be 
gaid that if we reject all but free-will offerings, our 
means will not suffice. If that should be the case, 
yet I doubt not less money, cheerfully contributed, 
would accomplish more than a larger amount drawn 
out of the pockets of an unwilling and complaining 
people. But I do not believe that the sum total of 



LIBERALITY. 139 

receipts would be less. Was there any deficiency 
in the ofTermgs contributed for the tabernacle ? So 
far from it, there was a superabundance. The ar- 
tisans came and told Moses, saying, " The people 
bring much more than enough for the service of 
the work." Accordingly, Moses forbade any more 
ofierings being brought. *'So the people were re- 
strained from bringing, for the stuff they had was 
sufficient for all the work to make it, and too 
Twuchr The liberality went far beyond the ne- 
cessity. Christians give now no such examples of 
liberality for the church. Now much less than 
enough is received ; and that, though the notice is 
oft repeated, and though more than a mere notice 
is given — though warm and earnest appeals are 
made, and the greatest urgency used ; and though 
new arguments are employed, such as could not 
have been used with these Jews What a founda- 
tion for argument and appeal is laid in the love and 
death of Christ ! What convincing force, what per- 
Buasive efficacy ought there not to be to the mind 
and heart of every follower of Jesus, in the logic of 
that passage which Paul used so successfully with 
the Corinthians : "Ye know the grace of our Lord 
Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for your 
Bakes he became poor, that ye, through his poverty, 
might be rich." The Jews did not know that ; yet 
how liberally they gave — more than enough! But 
now, with all our knowledge, le2>^ than enough is 



140 PRACTICAL THOUGHTS. 

received ; and that, tliougli after the public appli- 
cation and appeal are made, the people are luaited 
on, and the application and appeal are renewed in 
private. Moses sent no one round, from tent to 
tent, to gather the contributions of the people. 
No ; these Jews brought them. But, ah, how 
little do Christians now bring to the treasury of 
the Lord ! How small a proportion of the money- 
used for the work of the Lord is brought! No ; it 
has to be sent after. The benevolence of the 
church now complies; it does not offer. It does, 
to be sure, stand still and do some good ; but it does 
not go about doing good. All the labor and trouble 
connected with giving is declined. It is considered 
nowadays to be a very good excuse for not giving 
to a well-known object of benevolence, if the per- 
son can say that he has not been called on to give. 
Not called on I Did your Master wait to be called 
on? Did his charity defer its action until applica- 
tion was made to it ? Formerly it was held that the 
disciple should be as his Master. In other days 
Christ was regarded as the model, and that Chris- 
tianity was not thought any thing of which did not 
include an imitation of Christ. 

Would it not be considered as a very unwise pro- 
ceeding on the part of an agent now, should he, 
after stating an object, immediately dismiss the 
people, and leave it entirely optional with them to 
give or not? Would he be likely to hear from all 



LIBERALITY. 141 

of them again? But Moses did so. He dismissed 
them; "and all the congregation of the children 
of Israel departed from the presence of Moses.'' 
But the very next verse says, "they came and 
brought the Lord's offering." There was nothing 
lost to the cause by this arrangement : " They 
came, both men and women, as many as were will- 
ing-hearted." They all did it cheerfully. 

But some may say, " It is no wonder they gave; 
what use had they in the wilderness for their money 
and substance ?" But observe what articles they 
contributed — gold and silver, and precious stones, 
which men value, whether they have any particu- 
lar use for them or not. Nor these only, but their 
personal ornaments, "bracelets, and ear-rings, and 
rings, and tablets, all jewels of gold." You see 
they gave things which are valued under all cir- 
cumstances. ISTor could it be said that they gave 
generously because they were in prosperous busi- 
ness. Some persons say they are always willing 
to give freely when they are making money. Kow, 
the Israelites were not. making money, nor were 
they passing through a gold country, yet they gave 
liberally — far beyond the liberality of prosperous 
Christians generally. Nor was it a single donation 
they made. We read in the thirty-sixth chapter, 
" and they brought yet unto him free-offerings 
every morning.'" They kept it up from day to day; 
and how long they would have gone on, if not ro 



142 PRACTICAL THOUGHTS. 

strained from giving more, no one can tell. I won- 
der when we shall have to restrain Christians from 
giving. What a different state of things we find 
now I We talk about "stubborn Jews, that unbe- 
lieving race," but there w^as one generation ot 
them, at least, that were not near as obstinate in 
holding on to their money and substance as the 
present race of Christians. 



37. ANOTHEH EXAMPLE OF LIBERALITY. 

The iirst example was taken from the history of 
the Jews. The one I am now to give is taken 
from the records of Christianity. And yet it is not 
in any history of the modern church that I find it. 
They are not the Christians of the present day that 
I am going to hold up as a model of bountifulness. 
The reader will find the account in the eighth and 
ninth chapters of the second epistle to the Corin- 
thians. It relates to the Christians of Macedonia. 
Paul, wishing to excite the Corinthians to the ex- 
ercise of liberality, tells them what their brethren 
of Macedonia had done — how liberally they had 
given. The account is very remarkable in several 
respects. 

1. These Macedonian Christians gave, though 
they were very 'poor — in *' deep poverty." 2 Cor. 
8 : 2. They had the best of all excuses for not giv- 



LIBERALITY. 143 

ing. They might, with the greatest propriety, have 
pleaded poverty. I do not see, for my part, how 
they gave at all. But somehow or other they made 
out to give, and to give liberally. Their poverty 
does not seem to have stood in their way in the 
least. It is even said that ''their deep poverty 
abounded unto the riches of their liberality." Now, 
if their deep poverty so abounded, it occurs to me 
to ask, what would not their great richer have done, 
had they been as wealthy as some American Chris- 
tians? The truth is, as the proverb says, "When 
there is a will, there is always a way." Having 
it m their hearts to give, they contrived by dint of 
some ingenuity, and not a little self-denial, to get 
it into their power to give. Such liberal souls had 
they, that it made their very poverty abound unto 
the riches of their liberality. 

2. They gave not only to the full extent of their 
ability, but even beyond it. "For to their power, 
I bear record, yea, and beyond their power," they 
gave. So testifies the apostle. The Christians of 
our day do not give mcn'e than they are able. I wish 
it could be said that they give according to their 
ability. Now, the idea of giving as much as one 
can, is almost laughed at. But it was no joke in 
former times. " But how did they contrive to give 
beyond their power?" one will ask. "This looks a 
little contradictory." Well, I suppose it means, that 
they gave beyond what, on the usual principles ot 



144 PRACTICAL THOUGHTS. 

computation, would have "been judged to be their 
ability ; and that on the score of justice, and even of 
generosity, they might have been let off for less. 

''What improvident persons I" some will say. 
*' How they must have neglected their families ! 
Are we not told to provide for our own ; and that 
he who does not, has denied the faith, and is worse 
than an infidel?" Yes, we are told so. But for all 
that, it does not appear that these Macedonians 
were censured as worse than infidels. They were 
even commended, as Christians whose example was 
worthy of all imitation. 

3. They gave willingly, verse 3. They did not 
give beyond their disposition, though they did be- 
yond their ability. They had it in their hearts to 
give even more. It was done, "not grudgingly, or 
of necessity." No one said, as is sometimes said 
now, "Well, I suppose I must give you something." 
Nor was their willingness the effect of any appeals 
made to them. They were " willing cf themselves,'^ 
the apostle testifies. It was entirely spontaneous 
The apostles had not to entreat them to give; but 
they had earnestly to entreat the apostles to receive 
their gift. "Praying us with much entreaty, that 
we would receive the gift.'" It is not so now. 
Now, the begging is too much on the other side. 

4. They gave altogether beyond the apostles' 
expectations, "Not as we hoped," says Paul. Our 
agents are not often so agreeably disappointed. 



LIBERALITY. 145 

Their fears are more apt to be realized, than their 
hopes exceeded. 

5. But I see how it was they came to give so liber- 
ally. It was owing to " the grace of God bestowed " 
on them, as it is said in verse 1 . That always makes 
people liberal. Grace is a generous principle. There 
is nothing opens the heart like it. Under the influ- 
ence of this grace, they "first gave their own selves 
to the Lord." Now, when a man has given av/ay 
himself, it is easy to give what only appertains to 
him. The great matter is to give the person; the 
property follows as a matter of course. Indeed, it is 
included in the first gift. I suppose the reason that 
some give no more property to the Lord's cause is, 
that they have not given themselves to him. They 
have not begun right. 

6. I suppose also that these Macedonians were 
influenced to the exercise of liberality by the con- 
sideration which Paul uses with the Corinthians in 
verse 9 : *'Ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus 
Christ, that though he was rich," etc. They thought 
that the disciples ought to do like their Master. I 
conclude, moreover, that they held the doctrine, 
that giving is solving, and that men reap in propor- 
tion to what they sow; and since they wished to 
reap bountifully, they sowed bountifully. They 
knew, too, that God was able to make all grace 
abound towards them; that they, always having 
all sufficiency in all things, might abound to every 

Prac. Thoughts. 1 



146 PRACTICAL THOUGHTS. 

good work. 2 Cor. 9 : 8. They were not at all con- 
cerned about the consequences of their liberality. 

It should not be forgotten, that they gave for the 
benefit of people a great way off — ^the poor saints 
at Jerusalem. They might have said that they had 
objects enough at home, and where was the necessity 
of going abroad for them. But it seems distance 
had not that weight with them that it has with some 
now. The wants of the poor saints at Jerusalem 
touched their hearts, and they contributed for their 
relief, though they were poor, very poor themselves. 
I don't know but I might have made it with propriety 
a distinct head, that they seem to have been even 
poorer than those for whom they gave ; for theirs 
was deep poverty. When we give to evangelize poor 
souls in heathen lands, we do not give to those who 
are as well off as we are. We have no such objects 
at home as they are. Finally, what a noble exam- 
ple of liberality is here ; how worthy of imitation 
by American Christians. We need much that the 
spirit of these men of Macedonia should come over 
and help us. 



LIBERALITY. 147 

38. MOUE ABOUT LIBERALITY. 

In my opinion, there is nothing which lays the 
church more open to infidel attack and contempt, 
than its parsimony to the cause of Christ. Profes- 
sors of religion, in general, give nothing in com- 
parison to what they ought to give Some literally 
give nothing, or somewhere in that immediate neigh- 
borhood. I shall not inquire whether such persons 
are really Christian men. One might almost ques- 
tion whether they are human. 

I have used the word give; I must correct my 
language. Deliver wp^ I ought to say, when speak- 
ing of Christians who have so often acknowledged 
themselves as not their own, but themselves and 
theirs to be the Lord's. Not a cent, or not much 
more, will some of these deliver up of all that their 
Lord has given them in trust. What stewards we 
Christians are. We act as if we were undisputed 
owners and sovereign proprietors of all, when we 
know, and if pressed, acknowledge, it is no such 
thing. The infidels know that we profess to be but 
stewards, and that in our devotional hours we write 
on every thing we have, "This is the Lord's;" and 
they naturally expect to see some correspondence 
between our profession and practice ; and when they 
perceive that in this instance it is but bare profession, 
and that we do not mean any thing by it, they are 
very apt to conclude that this is true of our religion 



148 PRACTICAL THOUGHTS. 

generally. Moreover, these shrewd characters see 
common humanity constraining men of the world 
to greater liberality than the love of Christ con- 
strains his reputed disciples to exercise ; and that, 
though they hear Christians continually saying that 
there is no principle which has such power to carry 
men out to deeds and sacrifices of benevolence as 
the love of Christ. What must they conclude from 
this? Either that there is no such principle, or 
that Christians do not feel the force of it. 

Again, infidels hear us speak of giving, as lend- 
ing to the Lord. !N"ow, they do not believe any such 
thing ; but since we do, they are astonished that we 
do not lend more liberally to such a paymaster, and 
on such security. They are in the habit of lending 
liberally, and they wonder Christians do not. They 
hear us also repeating and admiring that sentiment, 
''It is more blessed to give than to receive." Must 
they not think us insincere in our commendations 
of this sentiment, or else that we have very faint 
aspirations after the more blessed part, when they 
look on and see with how much more complacency 
and good-humor we receive a great deal than give 
a little ? 

But about the parsimony of Christians. I do not 
hesitate to say, having well considered the import of 
my words, that men are not so mean — I must use 
the word — to any cause, as Christians, in general, 
are to Christ's cause. They give more sparingly to 



LIBERALITY. . 149 

it than to any other. Just think of the American 
Bible Society receiving scarcely one hundred thou- 
sand dollars a year from these United States, to give 
the Bible to the country and to the world. There is 
one fact for you. More is often given to carry a po- 
litical election in a single limited district ; and some 
professors of religion will give more to promote such 
an object than to help on the conversion of the 
world. I should not wonder if this article were 
read by some who have done so this very year. 

Many persons never give until they have done 
every thing else ; and when any pressure occurs, it 
is the first thing they stop doing. They go on spend- 
ing, not only for necessaries and comforts, but even 
for luxuries, never minding the pressure. They only 
stop giving ; commencing retrenchment with their 
donations, and generally ending it with them. They 
are liberal still for every thing but charity. You 
could never suppose, to look at their dress, equipage, 
furniture, table, etc., that the times were any way 
hard. No, they forget that, till they are called on 
to give ; then they feel the pressure of the times. 

The manner in which some persons give is wor- 
thy of no very commendatory notice. They say, 
when applied to, "Well, I suppose I must give you 
something." Mark the word must, where will ought 
to be ; and give, where contribute, or strictly speak- 
ing, yield up, should have been ; and you — give you. 
It is no such thing. The man is no beggar. He is 



ioO PRACTICAL THOUGHTS 

not asking any thing for himself. He has himself 
given to the same object ; and more than money — his 
time and thought, his cares and efforts. Nay, per- 
haps has given his own person to the service which 
he asks others to aid by their pecuniary contribu- 
tions. Christians, so called, talk of giving to sup- 
port naissionaries, as if they laid the missionaries 
under some obligation to them. Preposterous I How 
it sounds to hear a British Christian indulge such 
a remark in reference to the richly-gifted and pro- 
foundly learned Martyn, who when he might have 
shone at home, went into the sickly East to hold up 
the light of life in those dark places. To call men 
who give themselves to the work of the Lord, and 
to labor and die for their fellow-men, the protegees, 
beneficiaries, and obligated dependants of us who 
live and luxuriate at home, is really too bad — men 
who, when the alternative is to go or send, consent 
to the weightier branch of the alternative, and go ; 
that they should be looked upon as inferior to us, 
who choose the lighter part of the alternative, and 
only send, I say it is too bad. "I must give you 
something." Really I 

I do not wonder, for my part, that God does not 
give "the kingdom and dominion, and the greatness 
of the kingdom under the whole heaven," to the 
present generation of saints. Their souls are not 
sufficiently expanded to receive it. It will require 
a race of Christians oi great hearts to take posses- 



LIBERALITY. 151 

sion of the world in the name of Jesus — Christians 
who shall be constrained by his love, and who shall 
feel the full force of the consideration presented in 
2 Cor. 8:9. Many Christians now think they feel 
it; but is it feeling the force of that consideration, 
for a man who has an income of some thousands a 
year, to give a few surplus dollars annually to sup- 
pDrt missions, or to circulate the Bible? I do not 
say, that because Christ impoverished himself, there- 
fore all his followers ought literally to do the same ; 
"but I say they ought to come nearer to it than they 
do. If, being rich, they should not become poor, as 
he did, yet surely they ought to be more free with 
their riches. If the Master gave his whole princi- 
pal, certainly the disciples might give their interest. 
That would not be too closely imitating him. If 
he emptied himself, they at least might forego fur- 
ther accumulation. They need not become poor; 
but why should they be so solicitous to become 
more rich ? That is being as unlike the model as 
possible. 



152 PRACTICAL THOUGHTS. 

39. A TRACT EFFORT. 

We had a meeting last night in one of our churches 
to raise the sum of one thousand dollars in aid of 
the American Tract Society's foreign operations. 
The notice was general in the churches; and to 
many individuals repeated in the shape of a printed 
request sent to them on the day of the meeting. 
The evening came, and it was one of the finest we 
ever have ; not a cloud, and the moon shining forth 
in her fullest splendor, emulating, to her utmost, 
the light of the orh of day. We had not, however. 
a very large meeting. 

Few, even of our church-memhers, can he per- 
suaded to adopt that sentiment of the Saviour, that 
**it is more blessed to give than to receive." Many 
are unable to conceal the sceptical smile when it is 
gravely advanced and urged as an argument for lib- 
erality. More blessed to give I There is nothing 
in th?m that responds to that sentiment. Yet Jesus 
said it seriously. He meant what he said; and 
some of his dear followers know in their hearts that 
it is so. They experience the superior blessedness 
of giving. Far more delightful to them is the feel- 
ing when they communicate, than the feeling when 
they receive ; and giving leaves an impression of 
pleasure on the soul which no other act does or can. 
To be capable of communicating — what a privi- 
lege I they exclaim. It is to be like God, who all 



A TRACT EFFORT. 153 

things gives, but naught receives, s^Nre the gratitude 
and praise of his innumerabla pensioners and de- 
pendants. These persons give now as they pray, 
almost forgetting it is a duty, so occupied are their 
souls w^ith a feeling that it is a privilege. 

But we met to promote di foreign object, and that 
made against us with some. The distance of the 
heathen from us was even pleaded by one as an 
argument against contributing. They are so far off. 
So far off — my thoughts dwelt on these words, and 
I reflected thus: "They are not so far off from us, 
as angels are from men ; yet, angels come over the 
distance to minister to men. No part of earth is so 
far from any other part, as earth from heaven ; yet, 
did not the benevolence of the Son of God bring him 
across that long interval of space ? How have we 
his spirit, if our benevolence cannot carry us the 
length and breadth of this little continuous earth ? 
What if the object he foreign? Earth was more 
foreign to heaven. The man that argues against 
missions as foreign, is not perhaps aware that his 
argument assails the mission of the Son of God, and 
would prove the incarnation to have been an un- 
wise measure. But is it foreign? What, one spot 
of earth foreign to another, and man an alien to 
man? Christianity teaches a different lesson — that 
earth is but one great habitation, and men but one 
extended brotherhood. 0, shall we who have been 
visited by a benefactor from the skies, think any 



154 PRACTICAL THOUGHTS. 

part of earth too distant for our charity to explore ? 
Jesus thought it not so when he said, "Go ye into 
all the world." If the argument of distance had 
prevailed with others, we had never heard of Jesus. 
Was not Britain /ar off? yet. Christian missionaries 
visited it. I wonder that this circumstance should 
be forgotten. Was that a Quixotic enterprise which 
resulted in the conversion of our ancestors ? If not, 
how is that Q^uixotic which undertakes the conver- 
sion of a nation now in heathenism ? Too distant I 
There was something formidable in distance once. 
But what is distance now ? With the star and the 
compass, and the sail and the steam, and man's skill 
to construct, and courage to dare, and fortitude to 
endure, what, I ask, is distance? Diminished al- 
most to being annihilated. ^Tiither has not man 
gone for his own objects? Whither shall he not go 
for Christ's ? Shall curiosity, the love of science, 
the passion for adventure, the lust of gain, carry men 
further than the love of Christ shall constrain them 
to go? 0, never. There is no force in the objec- 
tion. 

It was, notwithstanding all, a good meeting. 
Those who were present gave liberally, and with the 
help of the ladies, we shall more than make up the 
sum we proposed. I know some think these women 
ought not to labor with us in the gospel. But why 
not these, as well as "those women" which labored 
with Paul in the gospel, of whom he makes such 



BIBLE FOR THE WORLD. 156 

respectful mention in his epistle to the Philippians? 
Was it proper then to use their aid, and not now ? 
May they not do what they can for Christ, as well 
as their sister whom Christ commended for having 
done what she could ? "Were they not women whom 
Christ sent on the first errand he wanted done after 
his resurrection? *'Go, tell my brethren that they 
go into Galilee, and there shall they see me." May 
not such as went on that errand, go on that great- 
er errand, '*Go ye and teach all nations?" May 
they not at least promote the going of others? 
What, are women the followers of Jesus Christ, and 
may they not, as their Master did, go about doing 
good ? 



30. THE WORLD SHOULD HAVE THE BIBLE. 

There are a great many reasons why the world 
should have the Bible. The reasons are so numer- 
ous, substantial, and urgent, that I wonder any 
should have doubts about it. And I wonder that 
we who have the Bible, and think so much of it, 
and have such means of multiplying and circulat- 
ing copies of it, do not resolve at once to attempt, 
within a reasonable period, to give it to the world, 
since the world can only have it by the gift of those 
in whose possession it now is. If it is time that 
they had it, high time, as I suppose no one will 



156 PRACTICAL THOUGHTS. 

deny, it is time we had at least resolved to try to 
let them have it. I w^onder the great national so- 
cieties hesitate to resolve to try to fill the vi^orld with 
Bibles within a given period. No individual or 
society knows what it can do till a trial is made ; 
we can never foresee our ability to accomplish a 
great enterprise. They must always be undertaken 
in faith. I consider it quite as hazardous to predict 
that the world God has created and upholds, can- 
not be put in possession of his word in some twenty 
or thirty years, as to predict that it can. This may 
seem a short time for us to fill the world with 
Bibles, but it is a long time for them to be without 
Bibles. I think it is always best to resolve on that 
which ought to be done, and which greatly needs 
to be done, especially when one knows that the thing 
is to be done within some period, and when the 
resolution is but to make the attempt, and even 
that is done only in reliance on divine help. A 
man may resolve on a great deal when he is author- 
ized to rely, and does actually rely on God to aid 
him in executing it. He may take on him a great 
weight of responsibility when he has such support. 
One can do all things, through Christ strengthening 
him ; and cannot some hundreds of thousands of 
Christians fill the world with Bibles, through the 
same? 

Why should not the efforts of the friends of Christ 
extend as far as do those of the foes of Christ ? 



BIBLE FOR THE WORLD. 157 

There is Satan and liis associates. They go for the 
whole world. When the Lord asked Satan whence 
he came, he answered, "From going to and fro in 
the earth, and from walking up and down in it." 
He had been over the whole ground. And shall not 
we go over the whole ground ? Shall we not go as 
far seeking whom, we may save, as he " seeking 
whom he may devour?" I know that he is a very 
powerful being, and we are weak ; but he is not 
almighty, whereas, though we are not, our glorious 
Ally is. 

I know, too, that the foes of Christ are united, 
and herein have a great advantage, while the friends 
of Christ are any thing but united. That desire 
which the Saviour expressed, "that they all maybe 
one," remains to be accomplished : and while that 
is the case, no wonder the ivcn'ld does not belicA^e 
that God has sent him. John 17 : 21. Christ does 
not seem to have expected that the world would 
believe, until his disciples were one. Now, they 
are not one, nor even two, but many. These friends 
have so many disputes to settle among themselves, 
that 1 do not know when they will be ready to pro- 
ceed against the common foe. No other being ever 
had such divided friends as Christ. I do not say 
that all their controversies are unimportant, but I 
say they are none of them as important as the Lord's 
controversy with the earth. 

But there is another more touching reason why 



158 PRACTICAL THOUGHTS. 

the whole world should have the Bible as soon as 
possible. My mind has recently laid great stress 
upon it, and it was for the sake of presenting it that 
I undertook this article. Every part of earth is a 
vale of tears, and man is universally a mourner. 
Affliction is, or is to be, the lot of all. "Man is 
born to trouble," and no one can alienate this birth- 
right. Now, the Bible is the mourner's own and 
only book. There is nothing will do for him but 
this. Other books have been tried and found want- 
ing. They do not go to the heart like God's. They 
do not wipe away a tear. But the Bible tells us of 
a hand that wipes away all tears from our eyes. 
And it is the very hand that made us. What a 
picture the Bible presents I One everlasting arm 
underneath a man to support him, and the hand of 
the other wiping away his tears as they flow. Was 
ever any thing like it ? That picture ought to be 
exhibited everywhere. I have read what Howe 
and Watts and Flavel and Baxter and Cecil, and 
I do not know how many others, have written for 
mourners, and it is all very well; but what is it 
all to what I have read in the Lamentations of 
Jeremiah, '* He doth not afflict willinglt ?" Ah, 
there is more than half the human race that think 
he does afllict willingly. The cholera is regarded 
by the Hindoos as the cruel sport of one of their 
goddesses. 0, how it would lighten the sorrows of 
these mourners, did they but know that it is no one 



BIBLE FOR THE WORLD. 159 

of a plurality of gods, but the Lord, that afflicts 
them, and that he does it not willingly. Can we 
not in a quarter of a century give them this in- 
formation ? But this is only one of I know not how 
many similar passages. There is another that goes 
even beyond this: "In all their afflictions, he was 
afflicted." Here is sympathy for you, divine sym- 
pathy. Dost thou feel ? He feels too. Does not 
the pitier always suffer as well as the pitied ? "Well, 
"like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord 
pitieth." Such ideas as these never crossed a pagan 
mind. It never even occurred to him that God is 
du father. 

I have thought how one of us in our affliction 
would like to be without the Bible, and what we 
would not give under such circumstances to obtain 
it; whether we would not give more to have it for 
ourselves, than we now give that the other mem- 
bers of the great family of mourners may have it. 
I think we should increase our subscription to the 
Bible Society. We would not like to go along the 
vale of tears, and through the valley of the shadow 
of death, into which the former sometimes so sud- 
denly sinks, without the twenty-third psalm in oui 
possession. 



160 TRACTICAL THOUGHTS. 

31. MRS. M. L. NEVINS. 

Will you allow a friend, in his affliction, to occupy 
a little space in your valuable paper, with a subject 
deeply interesting to himself and to a few of your 
readers. Other readers can pass it by as destitute 
of general interest ; and when their turn of bereave- 
ment comes, let them be indulged the like privi- 
lege of consecrating their private griefs on the pub- 
lic page. 

The following notice was inserted in the secular 
newspapers of Baltimore, of November 12 : 

"Died, on Saturday, November 8, 1834, after a 
short illness, Mrs. Mary Lloyd, wife of the Rev. W. 
Nevins, aged 33 years. Though she fell a victim 
to the dreadful pestilence, yet she suffered no pain, 
and felt no terror ; but with sweet submission to the 
divine will, with perfect confidence in the merits of 
her Redeemer, and in humble hope of eternal life, 
through his atonement, she gently breathed her spirit 
out to God, and left her body to sleep in Jesus until 
the morning of the resurrection." 

For the secular newspaper, that sufficed. But 
as one object of your publication is to record the 
doings of divine grace, a more extended memorial of 
what that grace did for the subject of this notice, 
especially in her last brief illness, cannot be out of 
place ijti its columns. 

Mrs. Nevins was the daughter of the late Philip 



MRS. M. L. NEVINS. 161 

Barton Key, Esq., and was born in Georgetown, 
D. C, the 27th of August, A. D. 1801. For several 
years, it was her privilege to enjoy the public min- 
istry, and to receive the pastoral attentions of the 
Rev. C. P. Mcllvaine, then rector of an Episcopal 
church in that place, and now bishop of the diocese 
of Ohio. For her soul he felt the tenderest con- 
cern. His prayers, his vigilance, and his efibrts for 
its salvation were unremitted and untiring. !N'or 
did he labor in vain. By the blessing of God on his 
fidelity, it is believed she became, in 1821, a subject 
of divine grace, and gave up the world for Christ. 
In one of her last conversations, she spoke of this 
beloved man in terms of such affection as can be 
felt alone towards those who have been the instru- 
ments, in the hand of God, of winning souls to 
Christ. She felt that, under God, she owed every 
thing to him. 

In November, 1822, she became the wife of the 
Rev. W. Kevins, and removed to Baltimore, the 
Bcene of his ministry, where she continued to reside 
until her death. Of her devotedness as a wife, a 
daughter, a sister, a mother, a friend, the writer of 
this could speak in terms of unmeasured eulogy; 
but it is enough that her record in this respect is 
engraven indelibly on many hearts. Her attach- 
ment to the cause of Christ was intelligent, sincere, 
a.nd uniform. 

Up to the evening of the 7th of November, she 

Prao. Thouglits. 1 1 



1(52 PRACTICAL THOUGHTS. 

was, With an exception deemed scarcely worthy of 
notice, in the possession of perfect health. It has 
been said of the cholera, that it begins where other 
diseases end — ^r^dth death. Almost literally true 
was this in her case. In a few hours after she was 
attacked, it became evident to those around her, 
and to herself, that the mortal blow had been struck. 
She needed no one to tell her of it ; she felt within 
herself that life was fast ebbing away, and said of 
the weariness upon her, that it must be the weari- 
ness of death. \'\Tien a friend, who stood by her, 
expressed her sorrow that she should take such a 
view of her case, she said, "Remember who hath 
said all things shall work together for our good. I 
submit to His will, and desire that he may do with 
me as seemeth to him good ; though it is very pain- 
ful to be separated from my dear husband and my 
sweet children. But I commit them all into the 
hands of the Saviour. It will be a short separation, 
and then we shall meet to part no more." Being 
asked if she felt afraid to die, she replied, " No ; I 
had always expected that the prospect of death 
would almost frighten me out of existence ; but now 
it has no terrors. I rely on Jesus, and feel I shall 
be happy when I die. It is better to depart and be 
with him, where I shall be completely freed from 
sin." To the friend already referred to, she said, 

"M , our intercourse here will soon be over. 

We have had many sweet and pleasant hours to- 



MRS. M. L. NEVINS. 163 

gether; now I am going from you to my precious 
Jesus. Precious Jesus, whom have I in heaven but 
thee?" Seeing her friend agitated and weeping, 
she said, "You must not do so. I am happy, very 
happy ; and you must all pray that my eyes may be 
fixed on the glories, of crucified love to the last.'' 

Once, with a sweet expression of countenance, 
she said, "How much is implied in those words, 
The peace of God which passeth all understand- 
ing." She was asked if she relied on Jesus. She 
answered, "Entirely." Often she was interrogated 
as to his presence with her, and her replies were 
uniformly satisfactory. On one occasion, appearing 
to be engaged in deep thought, she was asked what 
she was thinking of. She said, "Mercy." Jesus 
and mercy — those are what the dying should think 
of. Much on her lips, and more in her thoughts, 
was that name — name above every name — Jesus. 
"0 Lord Jesus, place underneath me thy everlast- 
ing arms. Jesus, receive my spirit. 0, Lord Jesus, 
receive me on the other side of Jordan," were among 
her prayers to him. Nor did her heart spend its 
emotions in prayer alone ; it was attuned to praise. 
She said, " I want a hymn sung." "What hymn ?" 
it was asked. "The hymn about crossing over Jor- 
dan," she said; and it was sung; and soon after, 
she crossed the stream — the narrow stream of death. 
Nor did Jesus wait for her on Canaan's bright side 
of the stream ; but he came over to earth's dark 



164 PRACTICAL THOUGHTS. 

shore of it, and himself took her across. That 
stream must be narrow, it was so soon passed ; and 
all was so calm, there could not have been a ripple 
on its surface. death, where was thy sting? 
grave, a feeble, fearful female, with only a few 
hours to arm herself for the conflict, and to take 
leave of her babes, met thee, and was more than 
victor through Him who gave her the victory. 

"Is that a death-bed where a Christian lies? 
Yes; but not his — 'tis death itself there dies." 



33. WHAT STRANOE BEINQS WE ARE ! 

How unreasonable ; how inconsistent with our- 
selves ; even we who are Christians. God does 
the very thing we ask him to do, and yet we com- 
plain of him, or grieve immoderately and almost 
inconsolably, because he does it. We ask that his 
will may be done ; which implies, that our will, if 
it be in contrariety to his, should not be done ; and 
this we sometimes in so many words express : *' JNTot 
as we will, but as thou wilt." Well, God does his 
will, the very thing we wanted him to do ; and yet 
we complain that he does not our will, the thing 
we deprecated his doing. We complain that he 
hears our prayer, and grants us the desire of our 
heart. Was ever complaint so unreasonable ? If, 
when we asked him to do his will he had done our«., 



WE ARE STRANGE BEINGS. 165 

there would have been some semblance of reason 
for our complaint. Will we say that we never 
meant, in our hearts, what the terms of our petition 
expressed — that we never really desired his will 
should be done? Will any one acknowledge that 
he has uniformly been a hypocrite in the use of the 
Lord's prayer? Certainly, then, he ought not to 
complain that God has detected and chastised his 
hypocrisy. But if he was sincere — if he desired 
what he asked for, then if he complains, he com- 
plains that God has gratified his desire. How per- 
verse it is in a creature to say to (xod, time after 
time, when craving good or deprecating evil, "JSTev- 
ertheless, not as I will, but as thou wilt ;" and then, 
because it is as God wills, and not as he wills, to 
think hard of God. 

Every one who prays, "Thy will be done," is 
aware that the will of God does not always coin- 
cide with the inclinations of his creatures. It were 
wonderful if it should — wonderful indeed, if the 
will of an omniscient and infinitely perfect being 
should uniformly fall in with the capricious desires 
and inclinations of those who are finite, fallible, 
and sinful. Our own inclinations do not agree with 
each other. We are the subjects of conflicting 
desires; the will of God could not coincide with 
our inclinations without coinciding with contraries. 
Well, the prayer, "Thy will be done," which we 
all consent to use, recognizing this want of coinci- 



166 PRACTICAL THOUGHTS. 

dence, begs that in all such cases,. God will cause 
his will txy be done rather than ours. It is a most 
reasonable request ; no wonder God should comply 
with it. And yet we complain that in such cases 
of disagreement, he does not carry out our inclina- 
tions instead of his own -^-ill. It is well, in view 
of such perverseness, that we have to do with a God 
of infinite patience. How very slow to anger our 
God is. 

But I have not stated the case yet in all its 
strength. Complaint against God would be alto- 
gether unreasonablej if he caused only his will to 
be done. But while he causes his own, he causes 
our will also to be done ; for it is our will, as we 
have told him over and over again, that his will 
should be done. Why should he not gratify the 
inclination of ours, that his will should be done, as 
well as any other inclination which we have ; for 
example, the inclination to retain a certain earthly 
enjoyment ? He cannot gratify our every inclina- 
tion, for the gratification of one would be the denial 
of another. He must make a selection. It is not 
his fault that we have warring inclinations. He 
did not make us so ; it is one of the inventions we 
have sought out. It belongs to us as marred by 
ourselves. Will it be said that God selects the less 
worthy inclination to gratify ? I think not. What 
worthier inclination can we have, than that God's 
will should be done ? 



WE ARE STRANGE BEINGS. 167 

Is it the pain of having an inclination crossed, of 
which we complain ? But let us complain of our- 
selves, that we have inclinations which need to be 
crossed. And besides, would it give us no pain were 
we to discover that, in a particular instance, God 
submitted his own will to our inclination, and suf- 
fered us to be gratified in a certain respect when his 
judgment was against it? 

Fellow- Christians, we must give up the use of 
that petition, "Thy will be done," or else act more 
consistently. It will not do to be daily asking a 
thing, and daily lamenting that the thing is grant- 
ed. If we would have our will done, let us alter 
the petition, and say, " Our will be done." Let us 
be sincere, if we are nothing else. Let us tell the 
Lord the very desires we have, however wrong they 
may be. That is better, certainly, than to have 
such desires and tell him the contrary. 

But I would by no means advise the alteration. 
I think we had much better keep to the old form, and 
pray as the Lord taught his disciples. Yes, let us 
go on to say, " Thy will be done." It is our heav- 
enly Father whom we address. Surely, his chil- 
dren need not fear to have his will done. Let us 
consent with our whole heart that his will should 
be done, and towards us as well as towards others ; 
and not merely in some things, but in all things ; 
for why should not all his will be done, as well as 
any part of it ? If we do so, by and by we shall 



168 PRACTICAL THOUGHTS. 

have no inclinations contrary to his will. We shall 
be incapable of cross or disappointment. Every 
thing being as he would have it, would be also as 
we would have it. 

If now a part of his will be hidden until events 
disclose it, yet in other respects it is already re- 
vealed. We know, for instance, that it is our Fa- 
ther's good pleasure to give us the kingdom ; and 
that it is our divine Saviour's will that we should 
be with him where he is, that we may behold his 
glory. For the present let this suffice us. We 
shall be satisfied, when we awake in his likeness. 
In this expectation we should be satisfied now. 
Let us suffer God to reign, and let us not aspire to 
be his counsellors. He taketh no counsel of any. 



33, WHAT VERY STRANOE BEINQS WE ARE ! 

Yes ; what very strange beings we are I We 
who are sinners expect to be treated with more 
deference than the innocent and holy. Their will 
is not done ; nor do they desire it should be. We, 
who are of earth, expect privileges, as we in our 
ignorance account them, which they of heaven 
never think of claiming — the privilege, if not of 
holding the reins o. government, yet of directing 
how they should be held ; and of having things 



« 



WE ARE STRANGE BEINGS. 160 

move on according to our inclinations. But should 
men, who are "of yesterday and know nothing," 
rule, when angels, of an intellectual growth of 
thousands of years, cast their crowns at Jehovah's 
feet and decline every thing but the most entire 
subjection ? 

But this is not all. We, who are the sons of God 
but by adoption, expect to be treated better than 
even God's only begotten Son. Did not he suffer ? 
And is it a mystery that we should ? Was he " ac- 
quainted with grief," and shall we deem it strange 
and inexplicable that we should have experience 
of the same ? Why should we marvel that the cup 
we deprecate does not pass from our lips, when a far 
more bitter cup did not pass from him ? Shall we 
conclude that God is not a hearer of prayer, be- 
cause a prayer of ours is not answered in kind, 
when he whom the Father always hears, prayed, 
" Let this cup pass from me," and it was not done ? 
Ah, you say, what a dark and mysterious provi- 
dence this is ! But that was darker and more mys- 
terious, which left the Son of God to be betrayed 
and crucified by his enemies. And what if his suf- 
ferings were to accomplish an immensely important 
object ; how few, it may be supposed, of the intel- 
ligent minds that looked on, were aware of that. 
Besides, may not your sufferings be intended to ac- 
complish an important object? Are they not cer- 
tainly so meant ? Do w^e not read of chastening. 



170 PRACTICAL THOUGHTS. 

that "it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteous- 
ness, unto them who are exercised thereby;" and 
of affliction, that it '' worketh for us a far more ex- 
ceeding and eternal weight of glory?" Doubtless 
our sufferings are in their place as indispensable as 
were those of Christ. 

Again, how reasonable and fit it is that the fol- 
lowers of a suffering Saviour should themselves suf- 
fer — that they should drink of the cup of which he 
drank, and be baptized with the baptism where- 
with he was baptized. How could we be like him 
without suffering? The Master was made " perfect 
through sufferings." How suitable that the disci- 
ples should not be made perfect until after they 
" have suffered a w^hile I" He went through suffer- 
ing to his dominion and glory. Why should we ex- 
pect to reign with him, except we also suffer with 
him ? Have we not always known that the cross 
is the condition of the crown? "If we suffer, we 
shall also reign with him." Jesus was never known 
to smile on earth. But we reckon it strange and 
quite unaccountable, if we may not smile perpet- 
ually. He wept, while we regard each tear we 
shed as a mystery. What bereavement have any 
of God's adopted children ever suffered, the sense 
of which was so keen as that under which the 
only-begotten Son cried out, "My God, my God, 
why hast thou forsaken me ?" 

We wonder that God does not hear every prayer 



WE ARE STRANGE BEINGS. 171 

we offer to him for every sort of thing, for health, 
for success in worldly matters, for exemption from 
bereavement, etc., never reflecting that if he did 
so, he would cease to be the Governor of the world, 
except in name. He would be but our agent. He 
would reign in subordination to us. We should 
rule all things by the sway of our prayers. And 
where would be the difference between being on 
the throne ourselves, and directing him who occu- 
pies it ? Who would care to hold the reins of gov- 
ernment, if he might by the expression of his desire 
control the being in whose hands they are ? What 
a world this would soon become, if every prayer, 
every expression of desire offered to God even by 
his own children, were answered according to the 
term of it. The voices of them in heaven who say, 
** Alleluia; for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth," 
would be hushed at once. 0, shall God be infi- 
nitely wise and intelligent, and not employ his 
boundless wisdom and knowledge in managing the 
affairs of his creatures ? Shall his omniscience of 
all things in all periods exert no influence on his 
determinations ? Shall he, to gratify us, hear a 
prayer which we would never offer if we saw what 
he sees, or what we ourselves may discover in the 
progress of a few short years ? What strange beings 
we are to expect or desire such a thing. 

Are we the only persons whose happiness is to 
be regarded by God in his dispensations ? What if 



172 FmACTICAL IHirSETS. 

axL erent mffect us ^th sorrow ? The same ewesti 
JDMj a^ct otheis witli joy, and Grod may be leceiT- 
ing their praises while he hears cvr eonoplaiHts. 
Are we alone to he ctNosideTed, and not they ? We 
grieve, perhaps, because cne Teiy dear to ns has 
been taken fixnn earth to heaven. We psayed im- 
portonately that it m^ht be oth^^nae, but we 
were not heard. We know not what to make ci it, 
and are on the point of munnming. Bat was not 
thy friend's happing to be taken into the aceoont, 
as well as thine ? Is the erent so Tery mommfbl a 
one in the aspect of it which he contemplates ? 
Does ke grieTe that he has made the exchange ? If 
thy losB were eqmTalent to his gain, it would be 
nnkind to complain c£ the dispensation. But what 
is the 1<^ to thee in cranpaziscHi with the gain to 
him ? Is not thy fii^id satisfied with what God has 
done ? And shall you indulge discontent ? If yon 
eannot bat grieTe, yet yon should be willing to shed 
many teais for the sake of haring all his wiped 
away. Can a sool too soon cease finom sin and sor- 
row! Can heaT^ be ^itered^ pnematarelj? Do 
yon mt read and bdie^e that it is better, §u bet- 
ter, to depart and be with Christ ? 

How Tery inconsistent we are. If God, wearied 
with oar dboontent and complainings, should say, 
*' Well, ance you desire it, be it acceding to your 
mind,'' is there one Christian who would not in- 
stantly re^pcmd, " Nay, rather be it aeeording to 



ACCORDING TO THY MIND. 173 

thine ?" Who would exercise the fearful privilege 
of ordering a single event which is to affect him ? 
And shall we contend for a privilege which we 
would not exercise if we had it ? Shall we claim 
to choose in a case in which, if the right of choice 
were given us, we should immediately give it back 
into the hands of God ? 



34. " SHOULD IT BE ACCORDINa TO THY MIND ?" 

This question Elihu asked of Job. Things were 
not according to the mind of Job ; and he com- 
plained, and was unhappy that they were not. 
He wanted them to be according to his mind. 
Perhaps it is so with you. But should it be ac- . 
cording to thy mind, when there is another mind 
in the universe which is exercised and employed 
about the affairs of mortals ; and that mind infi- 
nite, while yours is finite — infallible, while yours 
is liable to a thousand errors and mistakes, in which 
you have often been detected, even by yourself — 
possessed of all knowledge, too, while you "are of 
yesterday and know nothing ?" Should it not be 
rather according to his mind ? Should the inferior 
mind dispose and direct things ? 

If there were but one such mind, the demand 
would not be quite so unreasonable. But should 



174 PRACTICAL THOUGHTS. 

it be according to thy mind, when upon the same 
principle it should be according to the mind of 
others, your fellow-creatures, as wise and good as 
you, as much entitled and as well qualified to govern 
as you, whose minds nevertheless are in opposition 
to yours, so that it could not be according to theirs 
and yours also ? Many of your views and wishes 
are at war with theirs. The gratification of your 
desires would often be incompatible with the grati- 
fication of theirs. Now should one creature rule 
all other creatures, and the Creator too ? Is it not 
better to let the supreme mind direct for all ; 
when, moreover, this creature, who would rule all 
others, does not and cannot rule his own spirit ? 
Methinks he who aspires to command and control 
others, should begin with commanding and con- 
trolling himself. 

But what still more unfits him to order things is, 
that his mind not only is at variance with other 
minds, but does not agree with itself. Sometimes 
it inclines to one thing, and again it inclines to the 
opposite. Nothing, not even the inconstant wind, 
is so changeable as this mind, which would have 
things to be according to it. Should such a change- 
able mind rule, rather than He who is "in one 
mind," and whom none can turn — "the Father of 
lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow 
of turning ?" 

But not only does this mind disagree with itself 



ACCORDING TO THY MIND. 175 

at different times, but often at the very same mo- 
ment it is at war with itself; forming plans and 
cherishing inclinations which are opposite to each 
other ; so that it could not accomplish one of its 
purposes without defeating another, and could not 
gratify itself in one respect without denying itsell 
in another. Should it be according to a mind, ac- 
cording to which it could not be ? We often have a 
mind to an end, when we have no mind to the 
means necessary to secure that end. Who has not 
a mind to be saved ? But many have no mind to 
the way of being saved. Self-gratification is the 
thing men plead for, which implies that they have 
no mind to self-denial ; and yet, if they would be 
saved, they must deny themselves. In order to 
have things according to their mind hereafter, they 
must consent that they should not be according to 
their mind now. Things cannot be according to 
their mind in time and in eternity both. How mer- 
ciful it is in God not to let things be to our mind 
in this present brief life. 

Should it be according to thy mind, when thou 
dost not always know thy own mind ? In such a 
case, would you not have another to choose for you ? 
Should one who has to hesitate and debate matters 
with himself before he decides, have the direction 
of affairs in his hands ? How long it sometimes 
takes you to make up your mind. What shall be 
done in the mean time ? Must the course of nature 



176 PRACTICAL THOUGHTS. 

and providence be arrested, and the whole current 
of events stand still, till you have concluded what 
is best to be done ? 

Have you not sometimes had things according to 
your mind, and afterwards regretted that they were 
so ? And would you run the risk of similar regrets 
hereafter ? Have you not sometimes also had things 
contrary to your mind, and subsequently rejoiced 
that they were so ? Have you never found crosses 
to be blessings in disguise ? May not the present 
cross cover a blessing ? And will you complain of 
a blessing, in whatever garb it may come ? 

Let Grod be heard before he is condemned. We 
concede this privilege to men. We consent to hear 
their reasons, before we censure their acts. God 
has appointed a day for the explanation of all things ; 
and he may reveal the reasons of his conduct towards 
us even before the day of the revelation of his right- 
eous judgment. It is uncertain whether we shall 
justify men, after we have heard their reasons; but 
do you not believe, that if you knew the reasons of 
all God's proceedings in providence, you would ap- 
prove and sanction them all, and that your mind 
would be in accordance with his ? Why then not 
acquiesce in it now? Other beings, better and 
greater than you, do so. They decline having 
things according to their mind. And should not 
you? Eli said, *' It is the Lord ; let him do what 
seemeth him good." And even Christ would not 



ACCORDING TO THY MIND. 177 

have it according to his mind. "Not as I will, but 
as thou wilt," was his conclusion, w^hen the bitter- 
est of all cups was at his lips. 

Are you one of those who love God ? Surely 
then it ought to satisfy you, when God assures you 
that under his government "all things work to- 
gether for good to them that love him." Will you 
not let him choose what the things shall be, when 
he pledges himself that the result of them all shall 
be your good ? Is it certain, if the things to befall 
you were chosen by you, that they would all con- 
duce to your good ? He says that he will withhold 
no good thing from them that walk uprightly. Is 
not this guarantee enough ? " How shall he not," 
says one of his inspired apostles, with Christ "also 
freely give us all things ?" " All things are yours." 
And will you complain that death is in the cata- 
logue, or that tribulation and distress are among the 
things in all which "we are more than conquerors 
throuofh Him that loved us ?" 



ll^v tlioughts. 12 



178 PRACTICAL THOUGHTS. 

35. HOW INCONSISTENT WE ARE ! 

How many examples of inconsistency one may 
give, without going beyond the pale of the church, 
into the wide domain of the world. We Christians 
consecrate ourselves to God, for his use and glory. 
Who is a Christian that has not done this ; and what 
Christian has not done it often, and perhaps recorded 
the solemn act of self-consecration ? Well, having 
done it repeatedly, and not by constraint, but will- 
ingly ; and having thus not only acknowledged 
God's right to use us, and to glorify himself in and 
by us, but asked him to do it, we afterwards com- 
plain that he does it. We object to the use to which 
he puts us, though we never stipulated any partic- 
ular use to v/hich he should put us, but left him 
free to use us as should seem good to him. Yet 
now, when we see what he is going to do with us, 
though in consenting that he should do with us 
according to his pleasure, v/e consented to that very 
thing, we demur, and would dictate what use he 
should make of us and how glorify himself by us. 
Do I not justly denominate this inconsistency ? May 
not God do what he will with his own, when it is 
his own on so many accounts and by so perfect a 
right — his own not only by creation, by preserva- 
tion, and by purchase, but by our consent and cov- 
enant with him, and oft expressed desire that it 
should be his ; and when, moreover, he engages that 



INCONSISTENCY. 179 

ill using us according to his will and for his glory, 
he will not fail to secure our highest interests, our 
best good, our eternal well-being ? IVe do what 
we will with our own, though it be our own in a 
very subordinate sense, and though we use it exclu- 
sively for our pleasure or profit; and w^e concede 
the same right to our fellow-creatures. \Yhat if we' 
were to say to a fellow-man, *' This is yours ; you 
made it ; you daily renew your labor on it, to keep 
it in repair ; you also paid a price for it. I surren- 
der it up to you. I desire it should be yours. You 
are much better qualified to use it properly than I 
am;'' and then afterwards object to his using it as 
his own : how unreasonable it would be in us ; 
how we should contradict ourselves. And is it not 
as unreasonable to hold similar language to God 
and then complain of him ? 

"We also consecrate to God our families — wife 
and children and all. We say, " These also are 
thine, Lord. Use them likewise for thy glory. 
We consecrate them to thee." Well, being conse- 
crated, he uses them as sacred to him ; and present- 
ly, having no further use for one of them on earth, 
and wanting him in heaven to fill a place there, he 
takes the person thither, changes his residence and 
society, promotes him, brings him nearer to court. 
Having some time before justified and begun to 
sanctify the individual, he at once perfects the work 
of holiness in him, and beatifies, glorifies him — frees 



180 PRACTICAL THOUGHTS. 

him from all sin, sorrow, pain, and dread, and wipes 
away his last tear. The subject of all this is in an 
ecstasy of joy and gratitude for w^iat has been done 
to him, and would not for worlds leave the choice 
spot which he now occupies. Well, and what then ? 
Why, we object and complain, and think it hard, 
and almost wxep dry the fountain of tears, and re- 
fuse to be comforted ; and that though it w^as G od 
who took that member of the family ; and though 
he took but his own, and took it to himself; and 
though we are so soon ourselves to follow to the 
same abode ; and though it was always understood 
and agreed upon that God should take each just 
when he pleased. It was one of the articles of the 
covenant we entered into with him. He claimed 
and we conceded the right. We received that 
creature with the express understanding that we 
were to give him up w^hen called for. We al- 
ways knew it was not a gift outright, but a loan. 
And now shall we complain of the recall of the 
loan ? 

how easy it is to convince the judgment — to 
silence the mind ; but the heart, the unmanage- 
able heart, feels on as before. Our arguments go 
not down to that deep seat of emotion. There is 
still the void, the tumult, the ache, the longing. 
Only God can reason with the heart. At no bid- 
ding but his, will it ever be still and satisfied. 

Again, we consecrate our property to God. We 



% 



INCONSISTENCY. 181 

«ay, "We being thine, all ours is also thine. Thine 
be it. Take and use it." But let God touch it, to 
take any part of it away, and how distressed and 
well-nigh desperate it makes some who profess to 
be Christians ; and how unlike a thing sacred, and 
by our act made sacred to God, we use it. "Holi- 
ness to the Lord," we inscribe on all our property, 
and then utterly disregarding the label, we use it 
exclusively for ourselves. 

So also we devote life to God. But he must 
not on any account take it. How we tremble 
when we apprehend that he is going to receive 
what we offer to him. death, can it be that 
thou hast lost thy sting ? Blessed Jesus, how reluc- 
tant thy disciples are to have thee come and take 
them to thyself I Forgive us — we know not what 
we do. 

Once more, what strange, inconsistent beings we 
are. If it be one characteristic of the righteous man, 
that he " sweareth to his own hurt, and changeth 
not," how much more essential to rectitude must it 
not be to comply with the terms of the oath which 
we have sworn, not to man, but to God ; and when 
the tendency of the oath is not our hurt, but our 
greatest and most lasting good. As Christians, we 
have sworn to God. We have taken the sacrament, 
and that often and not without deliberation. Many 
oaths are on us. And now shall we change ? Shall 
we draw back ? Shall we refuse to perform, or, as 



182 PRACTICAL THOUGHTS. 

the case may be, to submit, because of some trifling 
inconvenience, some transient evil, which God can 
and will make to conduce to our ultimate and 
eternal good? 



36. THE PITY OF THE LORD. 

There is a great deal of the Bible which seems 
not to be believed even by those who profess and 
suppose that they believe it all. And this is true, 
if I mistake not, of what some would call the best 
parts of the Bible — those parts, for example, which 
speak of the kind feelings of God towards his crea- 
tures, and especially towards those of them who 
fear him. I suspect that even Christians read them 
with a sort of incredulity. They seem to them al- 
most too good to be true. But why should not God 
feel towards us as he says he does ? Is he not our 
Father ? Has he not nourished and brought us up 
as children? "Why should it be thought a thing 
incredible with us, that God should feel as a Fa- 
ther does towards his children ? I never read that 
103d psalm, but I stop at the thirteenth verse: 
"Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord 
pitieth them that fear him;" and I read it a sec- 
ond time, and I find myself asking, not merely in 
admiration, but with some degree of unbelief, "Can 
It be that the Lord pities us, and pities us like as a 



THE PITY OF THE LORD. 183 

father his children? I know the Lord is good to 
all. How can he who is love, he other than benev- 
olent? It were contrary to his nature not to be. 
But pity expresses more than goodness — more than 
benevolence. There is an unmovedness in mere 
goodness ; but in pity, the heart melts, and the eye 
weepS; and the whole soul is moved as from its 
seat. And this is especially true of a parent's pity. 
Can it be possible that God pities after that man- 
ner?" yes, it is possible ; and it has passed out 
of the limits of possibilities into the circle of facts. 
The Lord pitieth them that fear him — pitieth, as a 
father, you, if you fear him. His feelings towards 
you are fully up to those which you can conceive, 
or from experience know to be those of the most 
tender parent towards his children. Yes, God pities 
you. That nature which is love, feels and exercises 
compassion towards you in your sorrows and trials. 
That great heart is affected by your misery and 
griefs, as our hearts are when at the sight of suffer- 
ing we weep. Yes, Christian, God is sorry for you. 
what a thought this for an hour of trial; what 
a sentiment this to bear suffering with. What if 
thou dost suffer ? Is it not enough that God pities 
thee? We should be willing to suffer, if he will 
sympathize. We should never know what divine 
sympathy is, if we did not suffer. This one con- 
sideration, that God pities, is worth more than all 
philosophy. 



381 PRACTICAL THOUGHTS. 

There is much that is interesting and lovely in 
pity, whoever be the object of it. There is, how- 
ever, a peculiar tenderness v^hich belongs to the pity 
felt for suffering children. Nothing goes so keenly 
to the heart as the child's tear and tale of sorrow. 
And is the pity of the Lord like this ? Yes. It is 
not said that he pities as man pities man, or as one 
pities children, or even as a parent pities children ; 
but as a father pities his children, so the Lord 
pities. "Like as a father" — like as one who most 
affectionately loves, pities the dear object of his 
love, his child, his own child, when that child is 
sick, and he looks upon his altered countenance, 
and with a weeping eye watches over him day and 
night, and hears his moans, and is imploringly ap- 
pealed to by him for relief which it is not in his pow- 
er to give — like as he pities, so the Lord pities ; so 
inexpressibly feels he towards them that fear him. 
Such deep and undefinable emotions as a parent's 
heart is occupied with, when he says, "My poor 
child," so the Lord pities. Can it be ? It is even so. 
Well, then, come want, come sickness, come sorrow, 
if such pity may come with it. The relief exceeds 
the suffering. The support is greater than the bur- 
den. It not only bears up, but lifts up the soul. 

But how does a father pity ? Does he pity so as 
never to chastise ? Oh, no. " Wliat son is he whom 
his father chasteneth not ?" He chastens out of pity. 
But he so pities, that he is infinitely far from taking 



THE PITY OF THE LORD. 185 

delight in the smallest sufferings of his children, 
even when it becomes his duty for their good to 
inflict them. It hurts him more to chastise, than 
them to he chastised. In all their afflictions, he is 
afflicted ; and more afflicted than they. Have you 
never corrected a child, and gone away and wept in 
pure pity for him? Have you never denied him 
something, and found it a greater self-denial? Is 
such your heart towards your children? Such is 
God's towards his. " He doth not afflict willingly." 

Again, a father so pities, that he would spare or 
relieve his child, if he could ; that is, if he had the 
power, or having the power, it were proper he 
should exercise it. A parent sometimes has the 
power to relieve, and does not exert it. The prin- 
ciple of benevolence within him which proposes the 
greatest good of his child for the longest period, 
forbids that he should yield to the impulse of com- 
passion which calls for the rendering of immediate 
relief. He pities his child too much to relieve him. 
So the Lord pities. He has always the power to 
relieve ; and often he exerts it. He always would, 
if it were, in view of all considerations, proper and 
benevolent that he should. He who for thee spared 
not his own Son, would spare thee every sorrow 
thou hast, and would relieve thine every pain ; but 
**whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth." 

A father so pities his children that he would, if 
he could, even suffer in their stead. More than cue 



186 PRACTICAL THOUGHTS. 

fathsr has said, ''Would God I had died for thee, 
my son, my son." And is the pity of the Lord like 
a father's in this particular too ? Yes ; so the Lord 
pities — so he has pitied. He could suffer in the 
stead of those he pitied — and he did. "Surely, he 
hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows." 
He has even died for us. what pity I 

A father so pities his children, that to promote 
their comfort and happiness, he wdll spare no pains 
and no expense. How freely the most avaricious 
parent will spend, if the necessities of a child re- 
quire it. The wants and sorrows of his child can 
open even his heart. Such is the pity of the Lord. 
He spared not his own Son, but delivered him up 
for us all. Having one Son, his only-begotten, he 
gave even him for us. 

Let the child of God derive from these consider- 
ations inexpresjsible consolation. think that he, 
in all thy sorrows, pities thee. Yes, thy God feels 
for thee. Thy sufferings go to his heart. There 
is one in heaven who, from that exaltation, looks 
down upon thee ; and the eye that watches over 
you wept for you once, and would, if it had tears, 
w^eep for you again. He knoweth your frame. He 
remembereth that you are dust. He will not break 
the bruised reed, nor quench the smoking flax. It 
was he who, when his disciples had nothing to say 
for themselves, made that kind apology for them, 
" The spirit is willing, but the flesh is w^eak." He 



THE PITY OF THE LORD. 167 

can be touched with the feeling of all your infirmi- 
ties. You may cast all your cares on him, for he 
careth for you. All through this vale of tears, you 
may rest assured of his sympathy ; and when the 
vale of tears declines into the valley of the shadow 
of death, not his sympathy only will you have, but 
his inspiriting presence and his timely succor. And 
after that, what will not his bounty be whose pity 
has been so great? When there is no longer any 
occasion for pity — when misery is no more, and 
sighing has ceased, and God's hand has for the last 
time passed across your w^eeping eyes, and wiped 
away the final tear, what then will be the riches of 
his munificence ? What then will he not do for 
you, having so felt for you ? You know a father 
feels a peculiar affection for a child that has been 
afflicted, and that has cost him a great deal. How 
will our compassionate Hedeemer cherish and caress 
those who have come out of great tribulation, and 
for whom he went through so much more himself 
What must be the glory of that place to which he 
will take them, after he shall have made them per- 
fect through sufferings. What exalted honors, what 
ecstatic joys must he not have in reserve for them 
whom he came down here to weep with, and now 
takes up thither to rejoice with himself And now 
that they have ceased to sin, and are perfectly con- 
formed to his image, what will not be his coinpla- 
cency in them, when his pity towards them is so 



168 PRACTICAL THOUGHTS. 

great in this imperfect state, in which their suffer- 
ing is always mingled with sin. 

Well, then, since we are the objects of such pity, 
let us be its subjects too. Let us pity, as we are 
pitied. Cared for ourselves, let us care for others. 
Let their cause reach our hearts, as ours reached 
God's. Let us, for whom so many tears have been 
shed, be not sparing of our tears for others' woes. 
Nor let us give to misery merely the tear, but speak 
the word of consolation, and reach out the hand of 
help. 



37. FIVE NEG-ATIYES. 

It is known that two negatives, in English, are 
equivalent to an affirmative. They destroy each 
other. But it is not so in G-reek. They strengthen 
the negation ; and a third negative makes it stronger 
still, and so a fourth, and a fifth. How strong ^^g 
negatives must make a negation. But do five ever 
occur? Whether they ever occur in the Greek 
classics, I do not know; but in the Greek of the 
New Testament, there is an instance of the kind. 
And what is that? Are the fiYe negatives used to 
strengthen any threatening ? No ; they are con- 
nected with d^ promise, one of the "exceeding great 
and precious promises" which are given unto us. 
The case occurs in Heb. 13 :5 "For He hath said, 



FIVE NEGATIVES. 189 

I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee." There 
five negatives are employed. We translate but two 
of them ; but there they all are, as any one may see 
who looks into his Greek Testament. Now, they 
need not all have been there. They are not all 
necessary to express the simple idea that God will 
never forsake his people. There must have been 
design in multiplying negatives so. I do not believe 
the phraseology was accidental, and I think it not 
difficult to guess the design. God meant to be 
believed in that thing. He would secure the confi- 
dence of his children in that particular. He knew 
how prone they were to doubt his constancy, how 
strongly inclined to that form of unbelief, and how 
liable to be harassed by the dread of being forsaken 
by him; and he would therefore make assurance 
more than doubly sure. So, instead of saying sim- 
ply, ''I will not leave thee," which alone would 
have been enough, he adds, *'nor forsake thee ;" and 
instead of leaving it thus, ''I will not leave thee, I 
will not forsake thee," he uses language equivalent 
to the following : *' I will not, I will not leave thee ; 
I will never, never, never forsake thee." There is 
a stanza which very faithfully, as well as beauti- 
fully expresses it : 

" The soul that on Jesus hath leaned for repose, 
I w'll not, I will not desert to his foes; 
Tnat soul, though all hell should endeavor to shake 
I'll never — no, never — no, never forsake.'* 



190 PRACTICAL THOUGHTS. 

How in earnest God appears to be in this matter. 
How unworthy it is in his children, after such an 
assurance as this, to suspect that he will forsake 
them. He cannot. It is impossible for God to lie. 
Here one who was never known to break his word, 
assures his people, each of them individually, and 
^YQ times over in a single sentence, of his continued 
presence with them. Under similar circumstances, 
what man of reputed veracity would be discredited? 
And shall not the God of truth be believed in a like 
case ? 



38. HOW TO DISPOSE OF CARE. 

There is such a thing as care. Who does not 
know it by experience? Who has not felt it at his 
heart? How heavily it presses there, and it pierces 
too. It is a burden; and it has also a sting. Noth- 
ing is more unfriendly to happiness than care. It 
is hard being happy with a load on the heart. The 
.objects of care are almost innumerable. What 
shall I eat, what shall I drink, and wherewithal 
shall I be clothed, are only a few of its anxious 
interrogations, and they are among the least impor- 
tant of them. These concern ourselves; but care 
often forgets self, in its solicitude for others. Par- 
ents, especially mothers, know what I mean by this 



HOW TO DISPOSE OF CARE. 191 

But I need not attempt to explain a word that ex- 
presses what we all feel. 

There is a care both for ourselves and others 
which God himself has cast upon us ; and of which 
it were sinful to attempt to make any other disposi- 
tion than he has made of it. But over and above 
this, there is a large amount of solicitude and anx- 
iety which we lay upon ourselves, and which is 
unnecessary, useless, and injurious. This is the 
care that is unfavorable to happiness. The other is 
friendly to it. It is very desirable to get rid of it, 
since it does us harm and does no one good. JSToth- 
ing is more hostile to the successful care of the soul 
than the pressure and poignancy of the care oi 
which I speak. " Careful and troubled about many 
things," we intermit or entirely overlook the care 
of the "one thing needful." But what shall we do 
with it, how get rid of it, since to bear it is so pain- 
ful to our feelings, and often so ruinous to our better 
interests ? Divide it with others we may, to some 
little extent. There is such a thing as sympathy. 
There is such an operation as unburdening the 
mind to a fellow-creature. And I will not deny 
that there is some relief in it. Yet the very etymol- 
ogy of the word sympathy, evinces that it is no 
remedy. It is, after all, a suffering together. A 
great deal of what constitutes sympathy, is grief 
that we can but grieve — sorrow that we cannot suc- 
cor. Mixing tears does indeed diminish their bit- 



192 PRACTICAL THOUGHTS. 

terness ; but weeping with those that weep, does not 
wipe away their tears. They weep on ; and the 
only difference is, that we weep with them, and our 
tears may be said to dilute theirs. 

There is a better way of disposing of care than 
to cast it on our fellow-creatures. Indeed, what 
fellow-creatures can we find who have not enough 
of their own to bear, without receiving an addi- 
tional burden from us ? "What friend has not him- 
self surplus care to dispose of? 

There are some who cast off care without refer- 
ence to what becomes of it. They sing, " Begone 
dull care." These are the reckless. Care may go 
at their bidding, but the worst of it is, it is sure to 
return again, and it comes back a heavier burden, 
duller than ever. This is not the way to dispose 
of care. Yet there is a way whereby all excess 
of anxiety may be effectually removed, and the 
heart be left with all its tender affection, and yet 
with no more solicitude than such as the blessed in 
heaven might feel without diminution of happiness. 
It is to cast care on God. That is the true and 
only effectual way to dispose of care. He can take 
the burden, however huge and heavy. You do not 
doubt that ; but you ask, '' Will he ? May I cast 
it on him — I, such a one as I, cast my cares, the 
whole multitude and burden of them, on such a 
being as God? I know the government of the 
mighty universe, and the providence which extends 



HOW TO DISPOSE OF CARE. 193 

to the minute equally as to the magnificent — reach- 
ing low as to the fall of the sparrow, and the num- 
bering of the hairs of the head, does not distract or 
burden him. I know he can take a larger charge 
and not feel it. But will he ? "Will such greatness 
stoop to such littleness — such holiness come down 
to such vileness ? Yes, it will, for condescension is 
one characteristic of greatness ; and "the blood of 
Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.'* 
But why do I reason ? Does not the Holy Ghost say 
by David, " Cast thy burden upon the Lord, and he 
shall sustain thee;" and by Peter, "Casting all 
your care upon him;" and by Paul, "Be careful 
for nothing :" and does not Immanuel himself say, 
" Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy 
laden, and I will give you rest ?" No longer ask if 
you may, but use your privilege. Here is your 
authority. The Lord says you may do it. Nay, 
more, commands you to do it. It is your duty, as 
well as your privilege. So far is it from being pre- 
sumption to cast your care on God, it is a sin not 
to do it. 

This is the way to dispose of care ; and it is no 
matter how much there is of it. God will take it 
all. It is no burden to him. Many have made 
this disposition of their cares, and all testify how 
willingly he took and bore them ; and if at times 
they took back the burden, yet willingly he received 
it again, v/hen again it was cast upon him. 

Prac. Thcughta. 13 



]94 PRACTICAL THOUGHTS. 

There is a reason given by Peter for casting care 
on God, that is inexpressibly touching. He says, 
" Casting all your care on him," and then follows 
no flourish of rhetoric, no parade of reasons, but 
this — 0, how happily selected, I would say, but 
that he wrote by inspiration, which does every 
thing felicitously — "for he careth for you.'' Why 
should you care for yourself, since God cares for 
you ? Ah, here is a topic not for the meditation of 
an hour merely, but of an eternity. He careth for 
7J0U. Can it be ? why should he ? What a thought 
to carry through this vale of tears, and to go down 
with into the deeper valley of death, that God cares 
for me ! He concerns himself about me. Let the 
scholar look at the original. The English is good 
enough, but the Greek is still more interesting. 
God has me on his heart. Some poor saints think 
nobody cares for them. But God does. Is not that 
enough ? He that regards the cry of the raven, and 
gives all the fowls of heaven their food, and decks 
the lilies of the field, doth much more care for you. 
He concerns himself for his creatures, will he not 
much more for his children ? Are ye not of much 
more value, whom no less a price could redeem 
than the blood of his Son ? Let this suffice for you. 

I know not any thing that goes so soon and 
surely to my heart, as the sight of a poor sobbing, 
or sorrowfully looking child, an orphan, or worse 
than parentless, whom no one seems to care for 



DO YOU ENJOY KELIGION? 195 

But If I weep at such a sight, it dries up my tears 
to think that there is, after all, one who cares for 
the poor child, even he who said, ^-'Suffer little 
children to come unto me." 0, come, let us cast 
our care on God. Let us go to Jesus for rest. In 
him we shall find sympathy such as man can feel, 
with support such as only God can afford. There 
we shall meet with such pity as at first weeps with 
the sufferer, and then wipes away his tears. Surely 
he who hore our sins will not refuse our cares. 
'' Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our 
sorrows." 



39. DO YOU ENJOY HELiaiON ? 

I do not ask you if you possess religion, but do 
yoa enjoy it ? Does it make you happy ? The ques- 
tion is not whether being, as you hope, a religious 
person, you are also happy ; but is it your religion 
which makes you happy? Are you happy, because 
religious ? A person may acknowledge God, and 
have joy, and yet not "joy in God." Perhaps you 
will say it helps to make you happy — that is, re- 
ligion and certain other things together make you 
happy. But this answer is not satisfactory. Re- 
ligion must more than help to make you happy. 
If it only helps, it does no more than many other 
things. They help. In that case religion might 



196 PRACTICAL THOUGHTS. 

be needful to happiness, even as money is reckoned 
by many to be ; but it could not be pronounced to 
be the one thing needful. Religion ought to make 
you happy without the aid of any thing else. You 
should enjoy it, though you had nothing else to en- 
joy. Habakkuk says, "Although the fig-tree shall 
not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines; the 
labor of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall 
yield no meat ; the flock shall be cut off from the 
'fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls ; yet I 
will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of 
my salvation." He regarded religion as able alone 
to make him happy. And are we not commanded 
to be happy in religion alone — to '' rejoice in the 
Lord," and that " evermore ?" Should we be com- 
manded to be happy in it, if it needed some assist- 
ance to make us happy ? 

Religion is both exactly adapted and entirely 
adequate to make its subjects happy. It supplies 
the soul with a portion ; and what does the soul 
want to make it happy, but a suitable and sufficient 
portion ? This the religious man has. The Lord 
is his portion. Is not that a portion to make him 
happy? Is it not good enough, and large enough ? 
If the world can make one happy, as some suppose, 
cannot much more the Maker of all worlds, and the 
owner of the universe ? This portion is infinite, so 
that it can never be exhausted ; and it is eternal, 
80 that it can never fail. And while religion gives 



DO YOU ENJOY RELIGION? 197 

US a portion, what a protector, what a provider, 
what a comforter it affords us I The best of fathers, 
and the friend that is more constant than a brother. 
Then what present good it yields, and what prom- 
ises it makes of greater good to come. What a 
prospect it holds out I 0, what hopes it inspires I 
The Christian has all these to rejoice in — Christ 
Jesus, the "exceeding great and precious prom- 
ises," the first-fruits of the Spirit, and the hope of 
glory. Can any one say what is wanting in relig- 
ion to make one happy ? 

Religion has made many happy. Peter, in his 
first general epistle, within the compass of only 
three verses, speaks of Christians as not only re- 
joicing, but rejoicing "greatly," yea, "with joy 
unspeakable and full of glory." He speaks of it 
not as a duty or as a privilege, but as difact. They 
did so. And what they so rejoiced in was Jesus 
Christ, and the prospect of the incorruptible inherit- 
ance, both which Christians have the same warrant 
to rejoice in now. Now, if religion made these 
happy, why should it not make others happy ? Why 
should one enjoy it, and another not enjoy it, if both 
possess it? It was intended to make all its subjects 
happy — very happy. 

I ask, then, does it make you happy ? Do you 
enjoy religion ? Now, do not evade the question. 
What is to become of us, if religion does not make 
us happy? If we do not enjoy it here, how shall 



198 PRACTICAL THOUGHTS. 

we enjoy it hereafter ? Barely to possess it hereaf- 
ter would not satisfy, even if such a thing could be. 
How can a religion which does not make us happy 
on earth, make us happy in heaven ? The religion 
of heaven is the same in kind with that of earth. 
The only difference is in degree. The religion of 
earth is communicated from heaven. It must be 
of the same nature with it. 

Besides, if our religion does not make us happy, 
how do we do our duty? We are commanded to 
rejoice. It is a part oi practical Christianity to be 
happy. It is obedience to a precept. It belongs to 
the character of the doer of the word. Moreover, 
how are we to have satisfactory evidence that we 
possess true religion, if we have not joy in it ? Sup- 
pose we had not love, would we be Christians then? 
No, certainly ; for without charity a man is nothing. 
But why can we not be Christians without love ? 
Because it is the fruit of the Spirit. And is not joy 
also the fruit of the Spirit ? If love is the first named 
of the nine, joy is the second. " The fruit of the 
Spirit is love, joy," etc. Gal. 5 : 22, 23. And these 
are not said to be the fruits of the Spirit. It is not 
the plural form that is used. They are not distinct 
productions. They are all one cluster — ''the fruit 
of the Spirit." Now, since we have not love, we 
conclude we have not the Spirit ; why should we 
not conclude the same if we have not joy? I know 
it may be said that there are many things to inter- 



DO YOU ENJOY RELIGION.' 199 

fere with Christian joy. But while these may and 
do diminish it and interrupt it, they do not there- 
fore annihilate it. There was much to interfere in 
the case of those to whom Peter wrote. They 
were "in heaviness through manifold temptations." 
Nevertheless they rejoiced "greatly." 

You see now why I ask you if you enjoy religion. 
You perceive that it is no insignificant question. 
Many profess to have religion, but are conscious 
that they do not enjoy it. They hope they are re- 
ligious, but know they are not happy. They trust 
that G-od is their portion, but they have no joy in 
him. Indeed, some are astonished that we should 
speak of religion as a thing to be enjoyed. They 
regard it rather as a thing to be endured — as a sort 
oi penance, a system oi privation. And in so far as 
it is not suffering, it is toil — a something composed 
o^ penarice and task. When they betake themselves 
to any thing of a religious nature, they feel that 
they must. A sort of dire necessity constrains them. 
Such a religion may prepare a person for hell, but 
how it is to qualify him for heaven, I see not. And 
a religion which does not qualify a person for heaven 
certainly does not answer the purpose. 

Many persons lament that their religion does not 
make them happy, and they wonder why it is. I 
suspect it is because they depend no more upon it 
to make them happy. They look for enjoyment too 
much to other sources. Perhaps, however, the rea- 



200 PRACTICAL THOUGHTS." 

son they have so little enjoyment in religion is, that 
they have so little religion" to enjoy. Now those 
who appear to have so little, should seriously in- 
quire if they have any. 

But some say, "Religion sometimes makes us 
happy." But why only sometimes ; why not al- 
ways ? The command is, '' Rejoice in the Lord al- 
waysf^ and the same reason exists for heing happy 
in religion at all times, as at any time. If you re- 
joice in the world, no wonder if your joy is often 
interrupted ; but if God is your God, and he is ever- 
more the same, why should you not rejoice in him 
evermore ? But does not the Lord sometimes call 
to sorroAV? True, but even then he does not call 
from]o^, Joy and sorrow are perfectly compatible. 
"Were they not coincident in the experience of Paul ? 
"As sorrowful, yet always rejoicing," he says. If 
there exist causes of sorrow which operate, that 
does not annihilate the causes of joy. They should 
operate too. If you seem to have nothing else to 
rejoice in, yet there are your sorrows; rejoice in 
them : well may you, if they work for you "a far 
more exceeding and eternal weight of glory." Did 
not Paul "glory in tribulations also?'" 

Let not the reader rest satisfied until he enjoys 
religion. How are we to die by a religion which 
we do not enjoy? What can one enjoy when the 
world is receding, if he cannot enjoy God? 



*'LOVEST THOU ME ?" 201 

40. "LOVE ST THOU ME?" 
We make a profession of Christianity, and go 
along from day to day, and perhaps from year to 
year, supposing that we are Christians, and that all 
is well with us — ^that we are equipped for the en- 
counter of death, and prepared to meet our Judge 
and take our place in heaven ; when it may be we 
are not able to answer, till after long consideration, 
and then with not a little doubt and misgiving, so 
simple a question in Christian experience as, "Lov- 
est thou me ?" Per ad venture the utmost we dare 
say, after all our reflection and self-research, is, *'I 
really do not know how it is. I hope I love him." 
This will never do. The question, " Lovest thou 
me ?" is one which every person making any pre- 
tensions to Christianity, ought to be able to ansAver 
affirmatively at once. Indeed, we ought not to give 
our Saviour any occasion to ask the question. It is 
very much to our discredit — it should make us blush 
and be ashamed, that our manifestations of love to 
him are of so equivocal a character as to leave the 
very existence of the affection doubtful, and to ren- 
der it necessary for him to interrogate us in reference 
to it. There are many less lovely beings than Christ 
that have not to ask us if we love them. "We act 
in such a manner towards them, that they cannot 
for a moment doubt the fact of their being dear and 
precious to us. They do not want our words to assure 



202 PRACTICAL THOUGHTS. 

tliem ; they have our uniform conduct and deport- 
ment making the silent, yet most forcible declara- 
tion. Has your parent to ask you if you love him, 
or your child ? Have husbands and wives, brothers 
and sisters and friends, to ask this question of each 
other ? no ; none but Christ has to ask us if we 
love him. And he has not only to ask the question, 
but to wait, sometimes a long while, for an answer. 
We have to consider and go into an examination, 
md call up our conduct to the bar of judgment, 
and dissect our very hearts, before we can venture 
an answer. This is strange. It is not so in other 
cases. If a relative or a friend, more for the grat- 
ification of a renewed expression of our love, than 
from any doubt of its existence, ask us if we love 
him, do we keep him waiting for an answer ? Do 
we say, ''Well, I must consider. I must examine 
myself. I hope I do." No, indeed ; we are ready 
with our affirmative. Nor is it a cold Yes we re- 
turn, but we express our surprise at the question : . 
"Love you I" And we assure the person in the 
most emphatic and ardent language, that we love 
him, and all our manner shows him that we speak 
out of the abundance of the heart. But we do not 
express surprise that our Saviour should ask us if 
we love him. We do not wonder at the question 
from him. We know too well how much reason 
we give him to doubt our aflection. 

Why should there be such a difference in favor 



^'LOVEST THOU ML?" 203 

of the earthly objects of our love ? Is not Christ as 
lovely as those other beings, as deserving of afFec- 
don, as attractive of love ? He is altogether lovely. 
Are they? He possesses infinite loveliness. Nor 
does that express all. He is essential Love. Nor 
love at rest, but in motion; nor far off, but near; 
exerting infinite energy in action, exercising infinite 
fortitude in suffering ; earth th*e scene, and man 
the object. It is he who asks, *'Lovest thou me ?" 
And he of whom he asks it is this man, the intelli- 
gent spectator of all this love ; aye, its chosen and 
cherished object. 

If Christ was not nearly related to us, as those 
other beings are, that might be the reason of the 
difference in their favor. But who is so closely 
related to us, so intimately joined to us, as Christ? 
He formed us, and in him we live, move, and have 
our being. Does not that imply nearness ? Is he 
divine, while we are human? He is human as well 
as divine, one of the brotherhood of flesh and blood. 
He came down to earth to take our nature on him, 
nor went up to heaven again without it. There it 
is — our humanity allied to divinity, divinity radiant 
through it, on the throne. Is he not related to us? 
He says of every one who does the will of his 
Father, " The same is my brother and sister and 
mother." That alone relates us to him more than 
all human ties. But that is not all. Christ is the 
husband of the church. He is one with it. If we 



204 PRACTICAL THOUGHTS. 

are his disciples, lie is the vine and we the branches, 
he the head and we the members. Yea, "we are 
members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones." 
Does not this express a near and intimate relation ? 
Now it is one so near to us, so joined to us, who 
asks, "Lovest thou me?" 

Have our friend-s, whom we are so conscious of 
loving, done more lor us than Christ, or made great- 
er sacrifices for us ? Are we under greater personal 
obligations to them? 

^ ""VVhicli of all our friends, to save us, 

Could or would have shed his blood? 
But our Jesus died to have us 
Pteconciled, in him, to God.'^ 

And yet, we know we love those friends ; but this 
Friend — we know not whether we love him or not ; 
we only hope we do ! 

Do other beings find such difficulty in loving 
Christ, and are they at such a loss to know when 
they do love him ? no ; his Father testifies, " This 
is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." 
And he is called also his iv ell-beloved, his dear Son. 
All the angels of God love and worship him, and 
delight to ascribe infinite worthiness to him. It is 
only 77ien who find any difficulty in loving Christ. 
It is only the human heart that hesitates and hangs 
back. Is there any reason for this — any reason why 
men should be the last to love Christ, and why they 
should love him least of all who behold his loveli 



*'LOVEST THOU ME?" 205 

ness ? I see none ; but I think I see reasons, many 
and strong and tender, why we should be first and 
most forward and warmest in our affection to him. 
How many worlds he passed to alight on this. How 
many created natures he rejected, when from all of 
them he chose the himian to be united to divinity. 
Others have sinned, yet not their sins bare he, but 
ours. It may be said of other creatures, " He loved 
them ;" but of men only can it be added, " and gave 
himself for them." And yet who is so backward to 
love him as redeemed man ? Not tardy merely. 
how parsimonious of his love ; loving him so lit- 
tle, that often he cannot ascertain if he loves at 
all. Shame, where is thy blush ; and, sorrow, where 
thy tear ? 

how different Christ's love to us, from ours to 
him I We have not to ask him if he loves us. If any 
one should ever ask that question of Jesus, he would 
say, " Behold my hands and my feet." He bears on 
his very body the marks of his love to us. But what 
have we to point to as proofs of our love to him ? 
What has it done for him ; what suffered ? 0, the . 
contrast! His love so strong, ours so weak; his 
so ardent, ours so cold ; his so constant, ours so 
fickle ; his so active, ours so indolent. So high, 
so deep, so long, so broad his love, its dimensions 
cannot be comprehended, it passeth knowledge ; 
while our« is so limited and so minute, it eludes 
research "' 



206 PRACTICAL THOUGHTS. 

"Dear Lord, and shall we ever live 

At this poor dTing rate ; 
Oar loTe so faint, s*^ cold to thee. 
And thine to iia so great?'' 



41. THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD. 

How are we to know whether, being ncminally 
Christians, we are also really Christians? It is 
important to know if we possess the thing signified 
by Christianity. The mere name and fame of the 
thing irtrill be of little use to ns. 

jN"ow, the Bible tells ns what Christians are. If, 
then, ice are what the book says Christians are, we 
are Christians. Every body admits this, that a 
sa-iptural Christian is without doubt a real one. 
But some seem to hesitate about admitting the con- 
verse of the proposition, that if we are not what the 
Bible says Christians are, we are not Christians. 
The reason they hesitate can only be that they per- 
ceive or fear the latter conclusion makes against 
themselves ; for the one is as clearly and certainly 
true as the other. What use could there be in state- 
ments declaring what Christians are, if individuals 
may be Christians without being what Christians 
are thus declared to be ? Indeed, what truth would 
there be in such statements ? That is no character- 
istic of a class which does not belong to all the 
individuals of the class. The declaration " If any 



LIGHT OF THE WORLD. 207 

man be in Christ Jesus, he is a new creature," is 
neither useful nor true, if some are in Christ who 
are not new creatures. The same may be said of 
the assertion, "There is therefore now no condem- 
nation to them .that are in Christ Jesus, who walk 
not after the flesh, but after the Spirit," if a solitary 
individual is pardoned and freed from condemna- 
tion who still walks after the flesh. There is nei- 
ther sense nor sincerity in it ; nor in this other pas- 
sage, ''They that are Christ's have crucified the 
flesh, with the affections and lusts," if some are 
Christ's who have never put the flesh and its lusts 
to that kind of death. 

It must be admitted, that if we are not what the 
Bible says Christians are, we are not Christians in 
fact. We may as well admit it first as last. Christ 
says we are to be judged by his word, not by any 
favorite author of ours, Blair or Paley, or whoever 
he may be ; not by any sermon we may have heard 
from this or that minister ; not by the standard that 
may have been set up in some conversation with an 
eminent divine ; not by the opinion entertained in 
the circle in which we move ; nor by what seems 
to stand to our reason. There will be no spreading 
out of these when the Judge shall sit. The Bible 
will be the only book of law and authority opened 
then. 

I know very well there is nothing new in what 
I am saying. Any body can say it, and say it as 



208 PRACTICAL THOUGHTS. 

well. Every body knows it already. But it is one 
of the old tilings that we need to be often reminded 
of. I know nothing we are more prone to forget 
than these convmon-place truths. It is what we 
know best, and most firmly believe, that we fail 
most to consider and lay to heart. The most fa?nil' 
iar truths have always been the truths by men most 
disregarded. 

But let us hear what the Bible says Christians 
are, for 1 did not intend so long an introduction. 
Well, the Bible says, among other things, that they 
are the light of the world. The blessed Jesus him- 
self is the speaker, and he is addressing his disci- 
ples, and he says to them, " Ye are the light of the 
w^orld." Observe, he does not say, "Ye ma]) he, if 
you are careful to live up to your privileges ;" or, 
"Ye ought to he — it is your duty;" or, "Ye shall 
he, by and by, when you have made greater prog- 
ress in religion;" but he speaks of it as a present 
tnatter of fact, "Ye are the light of the world." 
So it seems that Christians shine. We talk of a 
shining Christian, meaning to distinguish such a 
one from Christians in general. But there is no 
Christian who is not a shining one. Every Chris- 
tian emits light. Paul testifies of the Christians of 
Philippi, that they shone as lights in the world. 
They were what Christ said his disciples were. 
And must not Christians of our cities and villages 
be the same ? 



LIGHT OF THE WORLD. 209 

It also appears that Cliristiaiis are not merely re- 
ceivers. They give out — they communicate. That 
is their character. They do not live merely or 
mainly for themselves. A candle is not lighted for 
its own convenience, but for the benefit of others, 
that it may give light unto all that are in the house. 
Some people think it is enough, if they personally 
enjoy religion. But that is not the case. No man 
liveth to himself — much more does no Christian. 

There are tivo objects for which Christians shine. 
One is to discover themselves, that the world may 
know what Christians are, and so be led to emulate 
the character. This our Saviour contemplates when 
he says, "Let your light so shine before men, that 
they may see your good, works, and glorify your 
Father which is in heaven." We are to emit light 
for others to see by ; and it is that they may see our 
good luorks. All Christians perform good works. 
They are all of them doers. They are the most 
practical men in the world, through regarded by 
many as visionaries. There are, to be sure, specu- 
lators and theorists enough in the church, but real 
Christians are working-men. But what is the use 
in our good works being seen? Why is it not 
enough that they be dojie? Does not humility 
dictate that they should be concealed, rather than 
exposed? The thing is impracticable. "A city 
that is set on a hill, cannot be hid." Were the 
thing possible, the attempt at concealment might 

Prac. Thoughts. 1 4 



-/^ 



210 PRACTICAL THOUGHTS. 

"be proper enough, if there were no others to be 
influenced by the sight of our good works. Wheth- 
er a candle in an uninhabited house be on a can- 
dlestick or under a bushel, is a matter of little con- 
sequence ; but not so, if there be people in the house. 
The Christian's good works are to be visible; not 
that he may be applauded for them, but that men 
may thence be led to glorify God. Now, a question. 
Do we shine ? And by the light which we evolve, 
do observers see our good works? Have we any 
good works for them to see? And are they such 
good works as, seeing they, will instinctively refer 
to the grace of Grod as their cause, and so be led to 
glorify him? We are a chosen generation, a royal 
priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people; that 
we should show forth the praises of him who hath 
called us out of darkness into his marvellous light. 

I would not have any one suppose that a Chris- 
tian is to make an effort to let his good works be 
seen — -to be ostentatious of them. No, he is only to. 
let his light shine. He is active in doing good works, 
but quite passive in showing them. A luminous 
body makes no effort in emitting light. Indeed, it 
cannot help shining. A Christian has only, in all 
his intercourse with men, to act out the Christian 
spirit, and be governed by the fear of God and the 
principles of his holy religion, and the thing is dona 
The light is emitted, and the good works are seen. 
And this is the way, under God, to commend truth 



LIGHT OF THE WORLD. 211 

to the conscience, to reach the hearts of men, and 
make converts to God. Yes, this is the way. " Hav- 
ing your conversation honest among the Gentiles : 
that whereas they speak against you as evil-doers, 
they rnay by your good ivorks ivhich they shall be- 
hold, glorify God in the day of visitation." Another 
question. Is this what ice are doing — shining so " 
that men, knowing we profess the religion of Jesus, 
see, in looking at us, how pure, lovely, excellent, 
and divine a religion it is, and are led to say, "Ver- 
ily, it must be from God, and we must embrace it 
too — we will be Christians?" 

The other object for which Christians shine, is to 
enlighten others. But on this I cannot now enlarge. 
Only this I would observe. See \ilO\y far Christians 
shine. They do not merely illumine some little 
sphere. They are the light of the ivoiid. Their 
influence reaches to the ends of the earth. 

"Would we make good our Saviour's assertion 
with respect to ourselves, would we be the light of 
the world, let xn^ first take heed that the light which 
is in us be not darkness ; and let us next have a 
care that our light make discovery to others of good 
works. Let us do them. Then, as for those who 
see us, it is their fault, not ours, if they are not con- 
verted. And as for those who are too far off to see 
us, it only remains that we carry them the light, or 
send it to them. 



212 PRACTICAL THOUGHTS. 



43. THE SALT OF THE EARTH. 

Here is something else which Christians are. All 
that they are cannot he told in a single sentence. 
It requires many. Some content themselves with 
a partial representation of the Christian character. 
But the proper plan is to hring together all the 
Bible has to say about it, and then aptly to arrange 
the parts so as to present a full and perfect deline- 
ation. Many seem to think that every definition of 
religion in the Bible is intended to exhaust the sub- 
ject. It is a great mistake, and one which, I fear, 
is fatal to many. 

Christians are the light of the world, as has been 
already said. But this is not all they are, they are 
also "the salt of the earth," and the same individ- 
uals are both these ; they do not merely shine for the 
benefit of the world — they act upon it in another, 
more immediate, and more energetic manner : they 
are not merely light to it, but salt to it also. They 
'preserve it. 

Here let me remark what a useful people Chris- 
tians are. What are more useful, I may say indis- 
pensable, than light and salt ? How could we get 
along at all without them? Well, Christians are 
these to the moral world. They enlighten it. They 
discover moral excellence to it. Yea, they preserve 
it from perishing. The world would not keep but 



SALT OF THE EARTH. 213 

for Christians. They are the salt of the earth. 
How soon Sodom was destroyed after Lot left it. 
He was the salt of Sodom. That one good man 
saved the city while he remained in it ; and if there 
had been nine more, they might all have remained, 
and Sodom should have been spared. Well may I 
say, how useful Christians are to their fellow-crea- 
tures. And I may add, how variously useful they 
are. If they were merely light to the world, they 
could be very useful, but they are also salt to it. 

Moreover, what a disinterested people Christians 
are. It is not to themselves mainly that they are 
so useful, but to others. Not a man of them liveth 
to himself. Light shines not for its own advan- 
tage, and salt exists wholly for the benefit of other 
substances ; and how completely it spends itself on 
them, and loses itself in them. Such are Christians. 
They please not themselves. They seek not their 
own. This is what we are, if we are Christians. 

And now I have another grave reflection to make. 
How different Christians are from the residue of 
men. How very unlike them. Others are not the 
light of the world, and the salt of the earth. JSTo, 
they are the world — the persons that require the 
light — the dark objects. They are the earth, which 
needs the salt for its preservation. They are the 
corrupt mass. Now, light is very unlike the objects 
it illumines, and salt very unlike the substance it 
preserves or seasons. If it were not, it would not 



214 PRACTICAL THOUGHTS. 

at all answer the purpose intended by its applica- 
tion. Well, just as unlike other men, unregenerate 
men, the men of the world, are Christians — as un- 
like as are light and the world, or salt and the earth. 
But some say this is figurative language. What 
if it is ? Figures 7nean something. They mean as 
much as literal phraseology. And the meaning of 
figures is as easily gained as that of any other kind 
of language. But St. John speaks on this subject 
\vithout a figure, and he employs one of the stron- 
gest and most striking expressions I have ever read. 
To many ears, it does not sound at all charitable. 
He says, speaking in the name of Christians, "We 
know that %ce are of God, and the whole world lieth 
in iuicked7iess ;'' or, to translate the original more 
literally, and to make the contrast still more strik- 
ing, in the icicked one. This is his account of the 
difference between Christians and others. Chris- 
tians are of God ; all other men are in the wicked 
one. Nor is it wonderful that Christians are so 
very different from others, when we consider that 
they become such by being created anew in Christ 
Jesus. Such a work of God upon them must needs 
make them very unlike those who are not the sub- 
jects of it. Creation makes a vast diflerence in 
things. The first creation did. The second does 
also. The new creature differs widely from the 
mere creature. The Christian is eminently distin- 
guished from the man. 



SALT OF THE EARTH. 215 

Christians are exhorted not to be conformed to 
the world. It would seem impossible that real 
Christians should be conformed to it. It would 
appear to be as contrary to their nature to be con- 
formed to the world, as for light to resemble dark- 
ness, or salt any insipid or corrupt substance. 

But the world say they do not see the mighty 
difference between Christians and other men. Per- 
haps it is because they do not look at the right 
persons. It is no wonder they do not see a mighty 
difference between some professors of religion and 
the rest of mankind, for no such difference exists. 
It is not to be seen. It is not every professor that 
is a true Christian. There are some that pass for 
Christians, of whom it may be said, that the light 
which is in them is darkness. Such are not the 
lights of the world. They need themselves illu- 
mination more than any others, for the darkness 
which is in them is great. Again, there are those 
in whom, according to the case supposed by our 
Saviour, the salt has lost its savor — its saline qual- 
ity. Yes, there are insipid Christians. That such 
should not manifest the difference which exists 
betv/een real Christians and others, is surely not to 
be wondered at. These differ from others rather in 
being worse than better than they. What is so 
worthless as salt which has lost its savor? "It is 
thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and 
to be trodden under foot of men." Just so it is with 



216 PRACTICAL THOUGHTS. 

graceless professors of religion. They serve no good 
turn, but many an ill one. 

But some are not entirely without the saline 
principle, yet have it in great weakness. They 
are, if I may so speak, only a little hrackisJi with 
it. Let such give diligence to grow in grace. And 
let us all see to it that we have salt in ourselves, 
that we may be in this respect also what Christ 
says his disciples are, ''the salt of the earth." 



43. THE DISTANCE OF DEATH. 

How far from any human being is death ? This 
is not equivalent to asking when he will actually 
die. That may not be for years to come. But all 
that time how far off is death from him? Not far, 
only a step. '* There is but a step between me and 
death." Death is always at just the same distance 
from every man, though all do not die at the same 
time, and some live to a much greater age than 
others. Death is as contiguous to childhood and 
youth, as it is to manhood and old-age. Facts are 
every day proving it. From no subject of human 
life, and from no point or period of it, is death ever 
at a greater distance than may be measured by a 
step. David said what I have quoted of himself. 
It is just as true of all men, unless some arc pro- 
tected, as Hezekiah was, by a promise of God that 



DISTANCE OF DEATH. 217 

he should live a number of years. David said it 
in a moment of panic. He might have said it in 
his calmest hour. It is no piece of extravagance ; 
it is a sober reality. It is plain matter of fact, that 
all we who live, live at precisely this little distance 
from death, and no more. David said it in view 
of a particular danger. But there are a thousand 
dangers besetting every man, any one of which 
could justify the language. We sometimes seem to 
be nearer death than at other times ; and we are 
actually sometimes nearer dying. Every hour brings 
us nearer dying, but not' nearer death, for that is 
never but ''a ste^o'' off. That is always close at 
our side — our companion through life. The whole 
course of life is in the closest proximity to death. 
We are not merely tending toiuards a brink, over 
which ultimately we are to plunge, but we are all 
the time travelling on that brink. We are not 
journeying towards a precipice which may be more 
or less distant from us, but our whole way winds 
along the frightful edge of the precipice. Our dan- 
ger does not commence just before we actually die, 
but it attends us all the way of life. It is true, 
some escape it for a long time, but there is not a 
point in the path which has not been so dangerous 
as to prove fatal to some travellers. 

It is this, if I mistake not, which makes our con 
dition here so fearful — this perpetual insecurity — 
this ever-present and imminent peril. It is not the 



218 PRACTICAL THOUGHTS. 

certainty of the fact in regard :o death that is so 
very appalling to the soul. It is the uncertainty of 
the time. It is not that ultimately we must die, 
but that presently we may. It is the thought of 
being necessarily always so near that great evil — 
always immediately adjacent to the judgment — al- 
ways close upon the confines of eternity, and always 
within a little of our everlasting abode — the jour- 
ney from every point of our path so short — a single 
stage, a single step. Xow here, anon there — this 
hour with men, the next with God : to-day only can- 
didates for immortality, to-morrow its incumbents — 
to day on trial for eternity; to-morrow tried, and 
the case decided irreversibly and for ever : on earth 
to-day, to-morrow in heaven or in hell — nor yet the 
interval always so great as a day. I do not think 
the fearfulness of man's condition in view of these 
considerations, is capable of being exaggerated. No 
language can overstate it. If the change await- 
ing us were gradually brought about, it would not 
be so fearful. If one by one the mysterious liga- 
ments of life were sundered, and one by one the 
objects of earth faded from our view, and the novel- 
ties of eternity were slowly and separately unfolded 
to our vision ; if the summons of death designated 
a distant day for our appearing at the bar of God, 
and our way thither was long and difficult, dying 
vv'ould not constitute so formidable a prospect as 
now it does. But the fact is. the change is as sud- 



DISTANCE OF DEATH. 219 

den as it is great. The familiar scenes of the one 
world all vanish at once, and the unimagined reali- 
ties of the other all at once burst on the beholder. 
The summons requires immediate attendance, and 
the way is but a step. There is no doubt about 
this. There are not two minds on the subject. 
Every one, when asked what his life is, answers in 
similar language, "It is even a vapor, that appear- 
eth for a little while, and then vanisheth away." 
'No one contends for the power or right to boast of 
to-morrow. All see that the Son of man cometh 
at such an hour as men think not. The frequent 
sudden precipitation into the grave and the eternal 
world, of persons of all ages, and of every condition 
of body, evinces that between them and death there 
was but a step. And how should there be more 
between us and death? The reasons which deter- 
mine God in the dispensations of life and death are 
perhaps more inscrutable than those which govern 
any other part of his conduct. There is no class 
of facts out of which it is so perfectly impossible to 
construct a theory, as those which relate to human 
mortality. 

So, then, death is but a step off, and we cannot 
move him further from us. He will keep just at 
that distance, though he may long maintain it. 
He will be ever threatening us — his weapon ever 
uplifted and over us, though he cannot strike until 
the word is given him from another. Ts it so ? Is 



220 PRACTICAL THOUGHTS. 

death but a step removed — so near as that ? Then, 
if there be any thing in death which requires prepa- 
ration — and is there not? — how important that from 
the earliest dawn of reason it should be made ; so 
that we may be ever prepared for that which is. 
ever so near — always in panoply to meet an enemy 
always at hand. How absurd to put off prepara- 
tion for death, when one cannot put off death itself. 
Is the reader prepared to die ? He has entertained 
less momentous questions than this. Is he in readi- 
ness to take the step which separates him from all 
that is final and formidable in death ? Will he not 
seriously institute and faithfully prosecute this in- 
quiry ? 

But if death is so near, there are other things 
even more formidable than death, which cannot be 
far off. Jiidgmefit is near, if death is. Yes, " The 
Judge standeth before the door." How near to 
every accountable being is the place and period of 
his final reckoning I To-morrow he may have to 
answer for the deeds of to-day ; or to-day, of yester- 
day's. How many accounts are closed every day — 
how many cases decided daily at that court of ulti- 
mate adjudication I And are we so near the awful 
interview, the tremendous audit ? And does it not 
affect us at all ? Are we so well prepared for it, or 
so careless of being prepared for it ? 

'Retribution ensues immediately on judgment. 
That also is but the distance of " a step." Now, 



DISTANCE OF DEATH. 221 

if that retribution were temporal and mutable, the 
thought would be alarming. But it is eternal and 
irreversible. Ah, then, if these things be so, how 
near to some is perdition I It is the verge of that 
dark and fathomless abyss on which they so se- 
curely tread. What a risk they run. The prize 
ought to be great which is sought at such a peril. 
So near to hell I What a position to occupy I But if 
the sinner will repent, and behold the Lamb of God, 
and yield his heart to the Lord, then he shall be as 
near to heaven. There shall be but a step between 
him and it. Some are as near as all that to heaven. 
It is not a day's journey there. It is but to take a 
step, and, follower of Jesus, thou art where no night 
is, and no sound of moaning is heard, and every tear 
is wiped away. So near to heaven I How frequent 
then and fond should be your thoughts of it. All 
so near ! Then *'what manner of persons ought we 
to be in all holy conversation and godliness I" How 
carefully and circumspectly ought they to walk 
whose path lies along such a brink. 

And since the end of all our opportunities is as 
near as death, whatever our minds meditate, or our 
hands find to do, for our own souls, for the good of 
others, or for the glory of God, let us do it with our 
might. 



222 PRACTICAL THOUGHTS. 

44. WHY SO LOATH TO DIE ? 

I find within me a strange reluctance to die ; and 
I perceive in others indications of a similar unwill- 
ingness. Indeed, it is rare to meet with one who 
does not participate in this general and great aver- 
sion to dying. Now I do not wonder that some are 
unwilling to die. Nature revolts at death. It is 
the object of her strongest antipathy. It is not 
strange, therefore, that mere statural men should 
be averse to it. Some have nothing to die for. 
How can it be expected that they should be willing 
to die ? They have nothing beyond the grave to 
go to. Their possessions all lie on this side of it. 
They have their portion in this life — their good 
things here. Do you wonder they are reluctant to 
leave them ? To such to die is loss. Death is not 
theirs, as it is the Christian's ; but on the other 
hand, they are death's. Jesus is not precious to 
them. How should they be "willing rather to be 
absent from the body and to be present with the 
Lord?" What Pai-^^a.. -eemed "far better" than 
life — dying in order cc '3 with Christ — has for 
them no charm whatever. . 

But that the spiritual man, the disciple and friend 
of Jesus, the child and heir of God, should be so 
strongly averse to death, deserves to be considered 
strange. We might indeed expect that there should 
remain some of the reluctance <>f nature to death, 



WHY LOATH TO DIE? 223 

even in the subjects of grace, for Christianity does 
not destroy nature ; but that this reluctance should 
be so strong, and often so predominant, that grace 
should not create a desire for death stronger than 
nature's aversion to it, is Vv^hat surprises us. 

I am sure it ought not to be as it is. Certainly 
every Christian ought to be able to say with Paul, 
" Having a desire to depart and be Avith Christ, 
which is far better." However averse to being " un- 
clothed," he should yet be willing to be "clothed 
upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of 
life." Life required an exercise of patience in the 
saints of old, which seems to have no existence 
now. Job says, "All the days of my appointed time 
will I luait, till my change come." Then Chris- 
tian submission was exercised in livhig. Noio^ to 
be resigned to death is the desideratum. Grace 
had then to make its subjects willing to live. Now 
it has to make them willing to die. 

How shall we account for this reluctance ? What 
if nature in us be strong, is not grace stronger ? 
Has it subdued our sins, f j~--\ our agitations, al- 
layed our fears, and can ' ^t master this one aver- 
sion ? Have we made experiment of what grace 
can do with the fear of death ? 

Is it because of the j^cii'^ of dying that we shrink 
from it ? But how know we that to die is so very 
painful ? In half the cases of death at least, it does 
not appear to be so. How many sicknesses we are 



224 PRACTICAL THOUGHTS. 

subject to, whose progress is attended with far more 
pain. How many surgical operations which men 
readily submit to, are beyond all doubt productive 
of more suffering. 

Is this world so bright and beautiful that we are 
loath to leave it on that account ? But is not heav- 
en fairer and brighter far ? Here there is night ; 
but there, none. Here deformity alternates with 
beauty; but there, all is loveliness. Here the alloy 
prevails ; there, there is no mixture, all is pure. 
Can it be possible that earth has charms and at- 
tractions equal to those of heaven — this earth, 
which the curse has lighted on, comparable in point 
of beauty and loveliness to that heaven where God 
manifests himself, and which Jesus has gone to pre- 
pare as the fit habitation and eternal home of his 
redeemed ? Is it conceivable ? Even the saints 
who lived under a darker dispensation esteemed the 
heavenly a better country. Is it the separations 
which death makes, that render, us so averse to die ? 
True, it separates, but it unites also. It takes us, 
I know, from many we love, but it takes us to as 
many we love. Leave we a family behind ? But 
do we not go to one larger, more harmonious, hap- 
pier ? Are we parted from friends by death ; and 
are we not joined to friends by the same? If we 
lose a father, do we not find a better Father ; and 
if we leave a dear brother, do we not go to one who 
*'is not ashamed to call us brethren ?" More than 



WHY LOATH TO DIE? 225 

half of some families have gone already to heaven. 
Why should we be so much more desirous of con- 
tinuing with the part on earth, than of going to the 
portion in heaven ? Do those you part from need 
your care and services more than those to whom 
you go ? But is it not safe going, and leaving them 
in charge of God ? Is it not he now who cares for 
them and watches over them, provides for them 
and defends them ? And will he not do it when you 
are dead and gone ? Ah, the parent clings to life, 
and looks imploringly on death, when he thinks of 
his loved little ones. What will become of them, 
he asks ? What would become of them now, if they 
had only you to care for them ? It is not your eye 
that keeps watch over them ; nor your arm that is 
put underneath and round about them ; nor your 
hand from whose opening palm their wants are 
supplied. It is God's. And what he does by you 
now, cannot he do without you ? Cannot he find 
other agents and instruments when you are laid 
aside ? Does he not say of the widows and father- 
less children, "Leave them to me?" And will he 
not be faithful to the trust which he solicits ? 

Do not children desire to see the face of their 
father? And are not we children of God? After 
»o many years of daily converse and communion 
with him, and after receiving so many tokens of his 
paternal regard, should you not be willing to go 
now and see him face to face, whose unseen hand 

Fnc. Thoughts. 15 



226 PRACTICAL THOUGHTS. 

has led, sustained, and supplied you hitherto? It 
is unnatural in us not to be willing to go to God. 
We readily go to those we love. 

Has home no charm? What man is he, to whom 
it has not a charm? Who has been long absent 
from it, and does not languish with desire to reach 
it ? But where is home — thy Father's house ? It is 
not here. It is beyond the flood. Earth is not 
home. Heaven is home. Living is not being at 
home. Dying is going home. We must die to 
reach our Father's house. And yet we are reluc- 
tant to die. 

Do you dread the way? Do you tremble at the 
thought of the valley of the shadow of death? 
What, when you are sure of such company as that 
of Jesus? Will you fear with him at your side? 
Do not talk of the cold arms of death. Think 
rather of the w^arm embrace of Jesus. Does he not 
say he will come for you? "If I go . . . . I will 
come again, and receive you unto myself." Angels 
may minister to the saints on common occasions, 
but when a Christian dies, Jesus himself attends. 

*'But death has a sting.'' You mean, he Jmd 
one. To those who believe in Jesus, no sting of 
death remains. 

Fear you the consequences of dying? Does the 
thought of the presence into which you are to go 
appal you? But you have often been into that 
presence in prayer; you have appeared already 



WHY LOATH TO DIE ? 227 

before God on his mercy-seat, and then you have 
wished the veil away. Why then so unwilling that 
death should withdraw it? Were you not glad- 
dened by those transient glimpses of his glory which 
you saw? And dread you now the full and fixed 
gaze of his glory ? Have you not often sighed foi 
those brighter views, and those nearer and clearei 
discoveries which death will afford you ? 

Surely, it cannot be the judgment you fear. 
What, when you are "accepted in the Beloved?" 
If accepted in yourself, you should not fear; how 
much less when accepted in him. If God would 
honor your own righteousness, had you a righteous- 
ness of your own, will he not much more honor 
Christ's righteousness, now become yours? What 
if you cannot answer for yourself ? C annot he an- 
swer for you ? But who is the judge ? Is it not 
Jesus, your advocate ? Will your advocate con- 
demn you ? Are you afraid to meet your Saviour ? 
He that summons you to judgment, is the same that 
said, *' Come unto me, and I will give you rest." 
Would you live always? I know you would not. 
But you would live longer, perhaps you say, for the 
sake of being useful to others. But who knows 
that you may not be more useful in heaven? Who 
can say but your death may do more good than 
your life ? Besides, if God can dispense with your 
services, should you not be willing to have them 
arrested ? 



228 PRACTICAL THOUGHTS. 

Do you not desire to be freed from all sin ? But 
know you not that only he "that is dead is freed 
from sin?" If you cannot be perfectly holy until 
you die, ought you to be so unwilling to die? Is 
your desire of perfect holiness sincere, while you 
are so averse to the condition of it ? 



45. HEAVEN'S ATTRACTIONS. 

I have been thinking of the attractions of heav- 
en — what there is in heaven to draw souls to it. I 
thought of the place. Heaven has place. Christ 
says to his disciples, "I go to prepare a place for 
you." It is a part of the consolation with which 
he comforts them, that heaven is a place, and not 
a mere state. What a place it must be. Selected 
out of all the locations of the universe — the chosen 
spot of space. We see, even on earth, places of 
great beauty, and we can conceive of spots far more 
delightful than any we see. But what comparison 
can these bear to heaven, where every thing exceeds 
whatever eye has seen, or imagination conceived? 
The earthly paradise must have been a charming 
spot. But what that to the heavenly ? What the 
paradise assigned to the first Adam, who was of the 
earth, earthy, compared with that purchased by the 
second Adam, who is the Lord from heaven? It is 



HEAVEN'S ATTRACTIONS. 229 

a **purcliased possession." The price it cost the 
purchaser, every one knows. Now, having pur- 
chased it, he has gone to prepare it — to set it in 
order — to lay out his skill upon it. what a place 
Jesus will make, has already made heaven. The 
place should attract us. 

Then I thought of the freedom of the place from 
the evils of earth. Not only what is in heaven, 
should attract us to it, but what is not there. And 
what is not there? There is no night ihove. Who 
does not want to go where no night is ? No night, 
no natural night — none of its darkness, its damps, 
its dreariness ; and no moral night — no ignorance — 
no error — no misery — no sin. These all belong to 
the nij^ht ; and there is no nio^ht in heaven. And 
why no night there? What shines there so per- 
petually ? It is not any natural luminary. It is a 
moral radiance that lights up heaven. "The glory 
of God doth lighten it, and the Lamb is the light 
thereof" No need have they there of other light. 
This shines everywhere, and on all. All light is 
sweet, but no light is like this. 

And not only no night there, but " no more cursed 
Christ redeemed them from the curse of the law, be- 
ing made a curse for them. And "no more death.'^ 
The last enemy is overcome at last. Each, as he 
enters the place, shouts victoriously, " death, 
gravel" "Neither sorrow'' It is Jiere. yes; 
it is here — around, within. We hear it ; we see it ; 



230 PRACTICAL THOUGHTS. 

and at length we feel it. But it is not there. " Nor 
crying'' — no expression of grief *' Neither shall 
there be any moie pain; for the former things are 
passed away." And what becomes of tears? Are 
they left to dry up ? Nay, God wipes them away. 
And this is a sure sign they will never return. 
What shall cause weeping v/hen he wipes away 
eears ? 

I have not said that there is no sin in heaven. I 
have not thought that necessary. If sin was there, 
night would be there, and the curse and death, and 
all the other evils — the train of sin. These are not 
there ; therefore sin is not. No, *'we shall be like 
him; for we shall see him as he is." 

What is there, then, since these are not ? Day is 
there ; and there is the blessing that maketh rich ; 
and there is life, immortality ; and since no sorrow, 
Joy — *' fulness of joy — -joy unspeakable," and smiles 
where tears were : and there they rest, not from 
their labors only, but from cares and doubts and 
fears. And glory is there, an " exceeding and eter- 
nal weight." 

Then I thought of the society. It is composed of 
the elite of the universe. The various orders of 
angels who kept their first estate — as humble as 
they are high — not ashamed of men. Why should 
they be, when the Lord of angels is not ashamed to 
call us brethren? The excellent of the earth also — 
all the choice spirits of every age and nation ; the 



HEATEN'S ATTRACTIONS. 231 

first man ; the first martyr ; the translated patri- 
arch ; the survivor of the deluge ; the friend of 
God, and his juniors, Isaac and Israel; Moses the 
law^giver, and Joshua the leader of the host; the 
pious kings; the prophets; the evangelists and 
apostles, Paul, John ; the martyrs ; the reformers ; 
the Puritan fathers ; the missionaries Swartz, Brai- 
nerd, Martyn — Carey and Morrison have just gone 
up ; and the young brothers who ascended from 
Sumatra — and another connected with missions, 
Wisner, has been suddenly sent for to heaven. 

Is that all? Where is he who used to lisp "fa- 
ther, mother" — thy child? Passing out of your 
hands, passed he not into those of Jesus ? Yes, you 
suffered him. If any other than Jesus had said, 
*' Suffer them to come to me," you would have said, 
No. Death does not quench those recently struck 
sparks of intelligence. Jesus is not going to lose 
one of those little brilliants. All shall be in his 
erown. 

Perhaps thou hast a brother or a sister there; 
that should draw you towards heaven. Perhaps a 
mother — she whose eye v/ept while it watched over 
thee, until at length it grew dim, and closed. Took 
she not in her cold hand thine, while yet her heart 
was warm, and said she not, ''I am going to Jesus. 
Follow me there?" Perhaps one nearer, dearer 
than child, than brother, than mother — the nearest, 
dearest is there. Shall I say who ? Christian fo 



232 PRACTICAL THOUGHTS. 

male, thy husband. Christian father, the young 
mother of thy babes. He is not — she is not; for 
God took them. Has heaven no attractions ? 

Heaven is gaining in attractions every day. True, 
the principal attractions continue the same. But 
the lesser ones multiply. Some have attractions 
there now, which they had not but a few months 
ago. Earth is losing. How fast it has been los- 
ing of late. But earth's losses are heaven's gains. 
They who have left so many dwelling-places of 
earth desolate, have gone to their Father's house in 
heaven. What if they shall not return to us? We 
shall go to them. That is better. 

But the principal attractions I have not yet men- 
tioned. There is our Father, our heavenly Father, 
whom we have so often addressed as such in pray- 
er : he that nourished and brought us up, and has 
borne us on; he that has watched over us with an 
eye that never sleeps, and provided for us with a 
hand that never tires ; and who can pity too. We 
have never seen our heavenly Father. But there 
ke reveals himself. There he smiles ; and the 
nations of the saved walk in the light of his coun- 
tenance. 

And there is he, to depart and be with whom 
Paul desired, as being "far better" than to live. 
There is his glorified humanity. If not having 
seen, we love him ; and in him, though now we 
see him not, yet believing, we rejoice with joy un- 



THE HEAVENLY RECOGNITION. 233 

gpeakalDle and full of glory, what will be the love 
and the joy when "we shall see him as he is?" 
There is he. 

Heaven has attractions, many and strong — and 
yet who would think it ? How few feel and obey 
the heavenly attraction. How much more power- 
fully earth acts upon us. How unwilling we are 
to leave it even for heaven. 



46. THE HEAVENLY RECOaNITION. 

The question is often asked, "Do you think we 
shall know each other in heaven?" Some are very 
curious to be informed on this subject. It is a point 
they seem more anxious to know than some other 
more important points. I am afraid we shall not 
all know each other in heaven. I am afraid we 
shall not all be there to know and be known. Let 
us first try to get to heaven. It is more important 
that we should be there, than that we should know 
what other persons are there. Let us repent with 
a broken heart, and believe in Christ for a title to 
heaven; and "let us follow holiness," that we may 
be furnished with a fitness for heaven: and being 
ourselves "accepted in the Beloved," and sanctified 
through the Spirit, let us try to get as many others 
to heaven as we can; and let us leave the subject 



234 PRACTICAL THOUGHTS 

of mutual recognition in heaven for subsequent 
consideration. By the time we have done what I 
recommend, we shall he close upon the celestial 
confines — perhaps within heaven's limits ^ * * ^ 

[The article is unfinished. The beloved author 
here laid down his pen ; and instead of resuming it, 
was called, who can question, to realize the scenes 
he had been describing.] 



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